


Push the Trigger and Pull the Thread

by wasted_truth



Series: These Thoughts and The Strain I Am Under [1]
Category: Pocket Mortys, Rick and Morty
Genre: Anal Sex, Canon-Typical Violence, Flashbacks, Heavy Petting, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mindfuck, Oral Sex, Suicidal Thoughts, Wet Dream
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2018-12-07 22:29:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11633247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasted_truth/pseuds/wasted_truth
Summary: Morty's telepathy and Rick's terrorist past put them in the cross-hairs of the Galactic Federation. They go on the run, finding each other and danger along the way.





	1. Intentions

Morty had his back to the spaceship, attention focused on putting away some of Rick’s tools. Another successful mission was under their belts; Rick had even taken him to an intergalactic diner afterwards for a celebratory breakfast. Morty smiled to himself, remembering how Rick had wolfed down his favorite, pancakes.

“Morty,” Rick said behind him.

“Yeah, Rick?”

Morty turned around and found Rick towering over him. Rick’s eyes were unfocused and Morty could smell something unusual wafting off him. It wasn’t the alcohol that Rick continuously consumed; this smell was medicinal, almost acrid.

“R-Rick?”

The expression on Rick’s face didn’t change, and Morty began to feel frightened. He tentatively reached out to touch Rick’s mind, something that he never did, except for once. There was a twinge in the scar that ran down his right temple a moment before he was overwhelmed by the swirling vortex of Rick’s thoughts and emotions. Rick was nearly unhinged, out of control like he was sleepwalking. Morty could only grasp fragments of shame, determination, self-hate, and most strongly, lust.

So focused was he on puzzling out Rick’s mental state, he didn’t realize that Rick had grabbed him by the wrists and yanked him forward. The press of Rick’s chest to his roused him from his mental trespass. Morty began to stammer his confusion when Rick’s mouth roughly found his. Morty made a cry against Rick’s lips, and Rick took the advantage to slip his tongue into Morty’s mouth and deepen the kiss.

The mental link was still there, and he was flooded with Rick’s mingled relief and hunger. Morty wasn’t even able to identify his own feelings because what was coming from Rick was too strong for him to handle. Rick dropped Morty’s wrists to cup his face in both hands. Morty severed the link in a panic, getting a stab in the head for his effort, and what had been a torrent in his mind was now a flood of information from his own body. The movement of Rick’s tongue against his and the rasping of his stubble on Morty’s upper lip made his knees weak. It was only a kiss, but it felt like he was being touched everywhere at once.

Morty reached up and grasped Rick by his lab coat in an instinctive motion to hang on. Rick broke the kiss with a panting breath a moment before bending down to suck on the side of Morty’s neck. His hands slid down from Morty’s jaw to his neck and then over his chest.

Back arching, Morty managed to stammer, “R-R-Rick!”

His voice echoed throughout the garage and he felt Rick freeze. Rick took his mouth from Morty’s neck and he slowly drew his hands back. His movements were stiff. Morty looked up at him and saw that the look in Rick’s darkened eyes was sharp; whatever had possessed him before appeared to be gone.

The saliva dried in Morty’s mouth. He thought Rick was going to speak, but instead, Rick reached up and pulled Morty’s hands from his coat. He lowered Morty’s arms before letting go and reaching into the inner pocket of his lab coat. Rick pulled out his flask and turned away.

“W-Wait –” Morty called after Rick as he walked to the door.

“Not now, Morty.” Rick walked out the door, closing it and leaving Morty alone.

Morty slid to the floor, muscles weak and fluttering. He sat with his back to the workbench, trying to get ahold of his own thoughts. It felt like the garage was spinning.

Rick was not his Grandpa Rick. Morty knew that, but he didn’t know if Rick knew he knew. His Grandpa Rick had gone on an adventure alone, which had been the norm at the time, since Summer had been fourteen and Morty himself only ten. Grandpa Rick had never returned. Morty already had his mental abilities, which were caused by head trauma from an accident he had been in a couple years before. Not long after Grandpa Rick left, Morty had felt him die. It never seemed odd to him that he would know about the death; they had been close.

More than a year had passed. Beth and Jerry had written off Grandpa Rick’s absence as proof that he was a bad father and grandfather. One day, Rick had arrived in a battered spacecraft that looked like what Grandpa Rick’s would have if it had been through a war. Rick had behaved as if he belonged there, as if he was Grandpa Rick, but Morty had known better. There had been too many differences: the way he spoke, the way he carried himself, even something about his appearance had been different. He had seemed younger, more roguish, more of a loner. Morty had always thought his Grandpa Rick was a fiercely independent person, until the imposter arrived.

The rest of the family had been content to accept Rick, but not Morty. Grandpa Rick had told him about other dimensions, other Ricks, and the Council of Ricks. What if this Rick were a spy – or worse? The fear had kept him up at night. He had waited until Rick was drunk one night and passed out in his room. Morty had used his psychic ability to probe Rick’s mind. While he didn’t get a complete picture, he had been able to figure out that this Rick was on the run from the Galactic Federation and was taking Grandpa Rick’s identity as a cover. He had no ill-will toward Morty or his family. After that, Morty had accepted him, but as his own person, not a replacement.

Morty forced himself to wobble to his feet. He made his way into the house and up the stairs, but Rick’s door was firmly shut. Morty paused, hoping to hear something, but was disappointed. He continued down the hall to his own room.

***

A hot dullness in his abdomen woke Morty up. He groaned, his hand reflexively sliding down to his cock. The fragments of the last dream clung to him, and he could feel long fingers brushing him all over, like the touch of a ghost. He squeezed himself, mumbling incoherently into the pillow. As he began to stroke, he breathed Rick’s name.

Morty heard motion and his eyes opened.

Rick was standing in the shadows by the door, watching him. He was only in his white tank top and dark brown pants. The moonlight from the window caught the definition of his wiry arms and angular face. When their eyes met, Rick strode forward and climbed on to the bed. He straddled Morty, and before Morty could react, Rick pulled the sheet down, exposing him.

Morty started to grab for the sheet to hide himself again, ashamed, when Rick leaned forward and brushed his lips across Morty’s. That barest graze sent lightning to Morty’s pelvis. He felt Rick’s hand pulling at his, and then his dick was in Rick’s grasp. Morty gripped the sheets, trying not to buck his hips at the feel.

A soft kiss came with an equally soft stroke. There was no desperation in Rick’s ministrations, like there had been in the garage. Rick slowly built the intensity as Morty’s breath quickened and he whimpered a string of incoherent pleas and curses that were mingled with Rick’s name. As Morty grew close, Rick kissed him particularly deeply, then suddenly broke away.

Morty felt Rick’s breath tickling his ear. “I finally found my Morty.”

Rick’s voice was a caress and it blew the dream apart.

Morty woke up with a jerk and immediately felt stickiness on his stomach and soaking his boxers. He was covered in sweat and out of breath.

“Ah, man,” he groaned, flopping back on the pillow. He looked around the room and saw he was alone. Morty thought about cleaning up, but couldn’t bring himself to move out of the bed. He felt like he had just cum enough to match a month of jacking off.

“Unbelievable.”

This…this put any of his stupid, juvenile fantasies about Jessica to shame. Those daydreams, and wet dreams, were always soft-focus, romantic. They never seemed real, and even as a horny fourteen-year-old, Morty’s Jessica fantasies were not really that explicit. This was different. This had felt real – and only spurned on by some kissing in the garage? Of course Rick was experienced –  Morty blushed unknowingly – but was that all it took to turn him inside out?

Morty’s alarm clock read 3:26 AM. He needed some answers. Maybe he was just horny, and earlier Rick had just been drunk, or high, or whatever Rick did. He _had_ smelled that weirdness on Rick. Still, Morty was ready to write this off to his own hormones, but he wanted to be sure.

After very quietly cleaning himself up in the bathroom, Morty knelt in front of Rick’s bedroom door. Rick was certainly asleep or passed out by now. Morty massaged his temple. He shouldn’t intrude on Rick like this, but he just wanted to know.

Morty’s mind reached across the intervening space to Rick’s mind. As soon as he touched Rick, he could tell that Rick was passed out, not sleeping. There were no dreams, only a thick, thorny darkness. Morty looked around with his senses. There was more. Rick’s mind wasn’t the tornado it had been in the garage. His feelings were more solid and easier for Morty to read.

He nearly broke the link at what he saw. Rick was falling apart inside: grief, shame, guilt, and a terrible loneliness and pain. If Morty hadn’t been on his knees in the hallway, he would have gone down on them. He almost withdrew from Rick’s mind, but then pressed forward. He wanted to know what Rick remembered from the garage.

It was easy enough to find the memories, because Rick must have been reliving them before he passed out. The memories started in the ship, when they arrived at home. Morty was talking – it was weird watching himself – but Rick didn’t pay too much attention to the words. Instead there was a huge internal dialogue that was tangled up with the way Morty smelled and the sound of his laughing. There was too much going on, and Morty didn’t have enough skill to sort it out, but he did get the same sense of desire and self-punishment that he had felt before. In the background, there was the faint sound of a klaxon alarm, repeating over and over. Rick closed his eyes and Morty saw flickers of red for a moment. Then he watched himself get out of the ship, leaving Rick alone. Rick reached under the seat and pulled out a bottle of glowing stuff that could have been antifreeze by the way it looked. Rick’s emotion changed to grim determination.

_“Do it, you pussy.”_

Morty couldn’t tell what was in the bottle, because Rick didn’t question its contents. He considered trying to probe deeper, but then Rick’s fingers were spinning off the top. Rick started to bring the bottle up to his mouth, but his fingers slipped on the glass and the bottle hit the floor.

_“Fuck! Fuck!”_ Rick hissed, grabbing for it. When he picked it up, more than half the bottle was gone. _“Motherfucker!”_

Determined to accomplish whatever he was trying to do, Rick chugged what remained in the bottle and tossed it aside. Morty immediately felt not the flush of drugs, but the stomach cramping effect of poison. Alarm thrilled through him as Rick grunted and doubled up.

_“Oh fuck. This should do it.”_ Rick took in a shuddering breath. _“I feel weird.”_

Understanding dawned on Morty. Instead of knocking Rick unconscious, the lower dose of poison altered his consciousness and left Rick without control. The poison was responsible for the smell and the strange look in Rick’s eyes.  

The link snapped at Morty’s wish; he didn’t need to see the rest. Morty pushed through the instant headache, grabbed Rick’s doorknob and twisted, hoping it was unlocked. It was. He burst into the room.

Rick was sprawled on his back, his arm hanging off the edge of the bed. An empty whiskey bottle lay near his outstretched hand and he had stripped down to just his underwear. Morty grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him hard.

“Rick! Wake up!”

Rick stirred and mumbled something, never opening his eyes.

“R-Rick!”

“Don’ fuck with me…always with the bullshit…fuck off.” Rick tried to roll to face the wall.

“Come on, Rick!” Morty shook him harder.

“Goddammit!” Rick seemed to come around and grabbed Morty by the wrists. “No more, GF pigs!”

His fingers were digging painfully into Morty’s skin. “Rick, you’re not in jail anymore! It’s me, it’s Morty.”

That seemed to finally break through to him. “M-Morty?” Rick looked at his hands, which were clamped in a vise grip. “I’m sorry.” He let go, and shame spread across his face. “I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”

“I’m okay.” Morty restrained the urge to rub the reddened flesh. He watched Rick sit up and run his hands through his grey hair. Morty still felt afraid, but at least Rick was awake and not lost to some combination of alcohol and whatever poison he had taken.

“Morty, I –”

The boy took a deep breath and blurted, “You’re not my grandfather.”

Shocked, Rick looked over at him. “What?”

“You’re not my grandfather. He died. You are…” Morty frowned, trying hard to remember what he had learned when Rick arrived. “You are Rick of D-Dimension H-923. You replaced my grandfather after he died.”

“How did…how…why are you telling me this?”

“Because you need to know.”

“ _How_ do you know?”

Morty pointed to the scar on his temple, tilting his head so Rick could see. “I h-have telepathy. After you arrived, I read your mind.”

Rick lowered his voice. “You have telepathy. Did you tell anyone?”

“My grandfather knew,” Morty said simply. “But he was afraid I would be a target if people knew. If Ricks knew.”

“He was a smart Rick. Is that why you never told me?”

“I don’t know why I didn’t t-tell you. I think I thought you would leave.” Morty hung his head. “And I didn’t want to scare you. I never read your th-thoughts, except when you first showed up…and today.” Rick looked away, clearly agitated. “W-Why did you take the poison, Rick?”

Rick closed his eyes and was silent a long time. Morty almost spoke when Rick finally said, “For many reasons I hope you will never understand.”

Something in Rick broke with an almost audible sound. Suddenly, he looked exposed, a look Morty had never seen.

Morty stood, letting the feelings that echoed off Rick guide him. He didn’t even need to actively use his powers with Rick’s guard this low. He’d never experienced this before; people always were closed to him unless he exerted himself. He sat on the edge of the cot and put his hand on Rick’s arm. “B-But I do understand. You’re alone and everything hurts. _You_ were hurt. And you…want something you think you can’t h-have.” He finished the last in a rush.

“Because I _can’t_ have it. I shouldn’t have done those things to you, Morty. It was wrong. You’re a kid and I’m…a sick old man.”

“No.” Morty ran his hand up Rick’s arm to his bare shoulder, trying to soothe him. “Is that how you really felt then?”

“Heh.” Rick’s chest hitched, and Morty let his hand move up more and brush through Rick’s hair. He could feel Rick emotionally crying out at that touch, despite the sarcastic tone of Rick’s voice. “You want to know what it was like for me to touch you? Sounds gross.”

Morty bit his lip at that and took a risk with Rick’s fragile state. He swung himself up and onto Rick’s lap.

Rick’s blue eyes widened. “Morty.” He gripped Morty by the shoulders and seemed to struggle with pulling him closer or shoving him away. “I can’t do this to you.”

“It’s okay, Rick.” Morty lowered his head and rested his chin on Rick’s shoulder.

He felt a shudder pass through Rick’s frame and then he was engulfed in an embrace, Rick’s arms sliding around his back. Crushed against Rick’s chest, Morty felt him bury his face in the crook of his neck. Rick’s breath was hot, and Morty unconsciously squirmed in his lap. The reaction he felt from Rick’s sex brought a gasp from Morty’s lips.

Rick’s arms dropped and suddenly both his hands were splayed across the small of Morty’s back, pressing and moving up, rucking up Morty’s shirt. Morty gripped Rick’s hair again and was rewarded with a grunt and slight pitch in Rick’s hips.

“R-Ri-” Morty started, but the name broke down into a whimper as Rick’s lips pressed against his throat. It was slow this time, not fevered like before. Morty felt heat spreading out from the kiss, and then the delirious pressure of Rick’s tongue on his skin, tasting him. “A-Ah!”

Another shiver passed through Rick, and then a third, and suddenly Morty sensed something was wrong. At almost the same moment, Rick pulled back.

“Fuck – Morty –” Rick pointed to the waste basket at the end of the cot. Morty reacted quickly, grabbing it and thrusting it into Rick’s hands a moment before Rick heaved violently. Immediately, Morty’s nose was accosted with a mixture of whiskey and poison.

Rick dragged his hand across his lips and dropped the basket to the floor with a grimace. “Fuck me. Timing.” Morty saw him sag, exhaustion plain on his face.

“Rick, lie down. I-I’ll clean this up. Okay?”

Rick nodded and stretched out on his back without protest, surprising Morty. He could see tremors moving through Rick’s arms. Had he just fought off the toxins for Morty as long as he could?

When Morty returned to the room after cleaning up, Rick was staring at the ceiling. “Sorry, kid.”

Dropping the basket in its usual place, Morty came to his side. “D-Don’t. Don’t be sorry.” He took a deep breath and blurted out, “Scoot over.”

Rick’s eyes shifted to his. “It’s a cot, Morty.”

“I-I know.” Morty didn’t want to lose his nerve. He knew he was out of his element. “Scoot.”

Rick relented, shifting his slim hips as close to the wall as he could. Morty climbed onto the bed and stretched his body down the length of Rick’s, letting his head rest on Rick’s chest. Listening to the fluttering of Rick’s heart, he felt Rick’s arms snake around him, pulling him in tighter.


	2. Falling Into Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"I always wanted to shoot that motherfucker."_

Rick let his fingers slowly stroke through Morty’s mousy hair, careful not to wake him. Rick himself was bone-tired and sick, but he couldn’t sleep. Twisting a piece of Morty’s hair around his finger, he wondered how the fuck this all could have happened.

 _At least he knows I’m not his grandfather,_ Rick thought darkly, _so it’s not really incest. Just a grown man seducing a kid._

He worried that was what he was doing: projecting his desires onto a teenager with no experience and no defenses. How was Morty supposed to defend himself against someone who used to fuck and fight his way across the galaxy?

 _How am I supposed to defend myself from him?_ The thought rose up, but Rick shoved it away angrily.

Rick had no Morty in his home dimension, and no Beth, Summer, or Jerry for that matter. He had never settled down, living the life of a mercenary, then resistance fighter, from his late teens. The portal gun had been the key; once he invented his own, the battles of his life began - until he and several friends were caught by the Galactic Federation. There was a laundry list of charges, some of them trumped up GF bullshit, but most of them real. Still, the GF really had little idea of all the things Rick had done, which might have saved his life in the first place.  

When he escaped prison, he left everything behind, including his friends. The penalty for escape was a death warrant, and he knew his friends would face punishment and danger if they knew anything about him. He found a dimension where a version of himself had recently died – the perfect cover. That Rick had a family, and after doing as much reconnaissance as he could, Rick showed up and took his place. No one suspected, he had thought at the time.

Except Morty had.

Almost in response, Morty muttered in his sleep. Rick freed his hand from Morty’s hair and carefully ran a finger over the scar that held Morty’s secret. He didn’t know what Morty’s grandfather had told him, but he bet it was a whitewashed, kid-safe version of the truth. A Morty with his powers, if they were what Rick thought they could be, would be a slave at best and dead at worst. Rick had avoided Rick-society for most of his life, but he knew Mortys were subservient to their Ricks. A Morty with this kind of power could elevate his Rick, and would be fought over if his secret was discovered. Morty was not safe.

_Not safe._

Rick shifted and instinctively pulled Morty closer. He needed a plan, because things had changed. He didn’t know how much risk there was for Morty’s secret coming out, but it had to exist. There were both Ricks and GF agents who focused solely on the study of the mind. If Morty ever crossed one of them, who knows what they could detect? Rick exhaled roughly. They’d been playing Russian roulette this whole time and he hadn’t known.

There was a light rap at his door. “Dad? Breakfast in twenty minutes.”

 _I would have fucked your son if I could have!_ Rick thought at Beth with a hard brightness.

He cleared his throat. “Thanks, sweetie.” Her footfalls disappeared down the hall.

“Morty.” Rick gave him a little shake. “Come on, time to get up.”

Morty stirred and raised himself up a bit. His hair was mussed and tumbling over his forehead, in part due to Rick’s exploring fingers. “W-What time is it?” he mumbled, rubbing an eye sleepily.

Seeing Morty look so disheveled made Rick’s mouth go dry. This was an image he had fantasized about on more than one lonely night. His body reacted before his brain could engage. Rick grabbed Morty by the collar of his yellow shirt and hauled him forward until their mouths touched. The silkiness of Morty’s lips twisted Rick’s gut as he pressed in for the kiss. Rick moaned at the rush of heat and feelings he didn’t bother considering, and he felt Morty start and then relax. Rick took one hand away from Morty’s shirt to reach up and grip his chin, taking the kiss deeper.

 _And what are you going to do when Beth comes looking for him, asshole?_ Rick heard his own thought and tried to shake it off. _Stop while you can, you dip-ass!_

Reality hit him like cold water. Getting caught would only cause problems they didn’t need. Rick reluctantly broke the kiss and took a few deep breaths.

“R-Rick?” Morty stammered in a way that Rick would only describe as adorable. “Are you – did I –?”

 Rick slid his hand down the boy’s cheek and touched Morty’s lips with his thumb. “Your family is shit, Morty.” He brushed Morty’s hair from his brow. “You’d better get to your room and get dressed. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

Rick didn’t watch him go; he knew his self-control was already too badly frayed. Once the door was closed, he crossed over to his battered dresser. He started to pull out the outfit that he had come to think of as his Rick uniform. He set the pale blue long-sleeved shirt on top of the dresser and stopped.

 _Why am I doing this? This is not important. Priorities have changed._ Rick slammed his hand onto the dresser top. _At least I should be myself. Fuck it._

He knelt down to the lowest drawer and rummaged around for clothes that had lain hidden and neglected for three years. He slid off the white briefs he was wearing and kicked them aside. From the drawer, he grabbed a pair of black pants littered with pockets and other useful hooks and loops. He tugged them on over his bare ass and the fit was snug and reassuringly familiar.

Rick grinned, relaxing into his own skin. “That’s the fucking ticket.”

***

“G-Grandpa?!”

Morty jerked his head up at Summer’s outburst, and his mouth fell open. Rick stood in the doorway…only this was _Rick_. Morty hadn’t realized how much Rick had camouflaged himself until now. Not knowing he was drinking Rick in, Morty saw everything: the tight black pants, a black tank top that bared a knife scar on Rick’s shoulder, black boots that laced up to his knees. Even his grey hair was brushed back and some fell over to the side, instead of the ruffled, spiky mess of someone who didn’t care about their appearance. 

A hot blush crept into Morty’s cheeks and he was very grateful that the dining table was hiding the bulge in his jeans. His breath caught in his throat when he realized Rick was watching him intently.

“Dad?” Beth set down her fork and was staring at Rick with huge eyes.

“Wow, Rick, the eighties called and they want their goth movement back.”

Rick swiveled his head in Jerry’s direction. His voice was flat as he spoke with contempt, “Shut the fuck up, Jerry.”

Jerry’s mouth worked, unable to respond to the verbal slap.

“Dad, you don’t look like yourself,” Beth said, surprise evident in her voice. “What’s going on?”

Rick took his usual seat at the table. “Morty and I have a special mission.”

Jerry tittered. “A special mission? Are you taking him to a rave?”

“Yes, _Jerry,_ ” Rick snapped. “I’m going to get him high on ecstasy too.” Rick shifted in his chair so that he could fully face Jerry. “You really are retarded. How – no, _why_ Beth stays married to you is a fucking mystery to everyone at this table.”

Jerry paled and looked away, worrying the collar of his green shirt. Rick was staring at Jerry, his expression hard.

“Dad –”

“C-Come o-on, Rick,” Morty managed finally. Somehow, he was sensing pent-up anger rolling off Rick, but his anger felt strange. “D-Don’t be like that.”

“Yeah, Grandpa,” Summer chimed in, before returning to playing with her phone. She had pushed her half-eaten breakfast away and was probably texting the boyfriend of the week.  

“Let me get you some breakfast, Dad.” Beth stood up and started for the kitchen.

Rick looked around the table slowly, then shook his head. “Just some coffee, thanks.”   

Morty breathed a sigh of relief and sagged in his chair. Beth returned with a cup of coffee and set it in front of Rick, who wrapped his long fingers around it. Morty watched him inhale the steam, just before his father’s voice broke through.

“You know, Morty, it’s a good thing it’s summer. We can’t have you running off with your grandpa during the school week, fighting cosmic lions or whatever it is you do.”

 _Grandpa._ Morty’s mind flickered to the burning feel of Rick’s mouth on his not even a half-hour ago, and the word made his stomach turn. This was not his grandfather, were they all blind?

Rick sipped his coffee and set the cup aside. “Won’t be a problem.”

“Oh? And why is that?” Jerry was suspicious.

“Morty needs things other than daily adventures in his life. I see that now.” Rick was answering Jerry, but looking Morty square in the eyes. Morty swallowed, uncertain of what that meant. Panic started to build. Was Rick going to leave? Is that why he looked like he did?

“Well, good. I’m glad you came to that conclusion, Rick.”

Morty broke his own rule to stop the rising tide of panic. He touched Rick’s mind again – and again, it was a swirl that threatened to pull Morty under. Fortunately, Rick was in control of himself this time. Morty brushed the surface of Rick’s thoughts and was bombarded. Pushing aside ones he had sensed before, he focused on the others: anger, arrogance, a grim resoluteness, and…fear? Of Morty? No, _for_ Morty. He pressed the source of fear and got an image of Rick touching his scar, followed by a flood of protectiveness and the sensation of Rick’s genius brain at work.

Drawing back, Morty took a shuddering breath as he broke the connection. Rick wasn’t leaving him, he was at least certain of that. His temple throbbed sharply and he massaged it without thinking.

Rick saw the motion and nodded very slightly at him. He picked up his coffee cup and drained it. Belching uncouthly, he stood.

“Morty, I’m going to load the ship. Finish your breakfast; we’ll go when you’re done.” He walked to the garage door without another word.

“Jeez, what’s gotten into him?” Jerry asked no one in particular.

Beth rolled her eyes at him. “God, Jerry, can’t you just shut up?”

Out in the garage, Rick worked fast. He loaded everything he thought they might need in the hatch, extra fuel, equipment, tools. When he ran out of room there, he started packing the backseats. When the workspace was cleared out, he thumbed a button underneath the bench. A large section of the wall slid aside, revealing a cache of guns and rifles. Some he tucked into the loops of his pants, the rest went behind the front seats. He was just fitting his portal gun against his leg when the garage door opened.

“R-Rick? What’s going on?” Morty was clearly shaken.

“Come here. Shut the door.” 

Morty did as he was told, and Rick brushed a thumb against a special button on the portal gun. There was the faint tickle of electricity and he started to count backwards in his head. Rick grasped Morty by the shoulders and knelt in front of him.

“I don’t have too much time to explain,” Rick kept his voice pitched low. “You are in danger, and so am I.”

“Because I –”

“Shh. Yes, although I’m in danger for lots of other reasons.” Morty expected him to look serious, but Rick grinned at that. “Something is very wrong, I can feel it. We’re leaving, right now.”

“Leaving – what?”

 _Shit! Time!_ “Do you trust me?” Rick rushed the words, then blurted, “Oh fuck, kid, just _look_.” He grabbed Morty’s hand and placed it against the side of his head.

Morty was taken aback by the demand, but he saw urgency in Rick’s eyes. He made the bridge and Rick’s thoughts nearly yanked him off his feet.

He saw breakfast from Rick’s eyes. The scene moved fast, but Morty realized immediately that what was passing between him and Rick was not subtle. Morty watched himself reacting to Rick – again, quite obviously – _and no one at the table noticed_. It was like they were playing roles of themselves.

He could sense Rick’s understanding growing within the memory.

_“Just some coffee, thanks.”_

_“Rick of Dimension H-923, do you know why you have been called before this tribunal?”_

_“Let me guess, I parked in a space for Galactic Federation douchebags.”_

Morty shook his head at the intruding memory, but it only grew stronger. Clearly, Rick was associating the two. He could see Rick standing with glowing red bands circling his ankles, wrists, and throat, smirking with narrowed eyes.

 _Wait – how can I see_ him _–_

“Morty!” Rick shook him. “Come on!”

Morty’s eyes snapped open and when the connection shattered, the stab in his head was so intense that he cried out. He tumbled forward, and Rick caught him.

Rick held him tight, feeling his own heart pounding rapidly against his ribs. “Jesus Christ,” he breathed. “Morty, are you okay?”

“My head, Rick,” Morty muttered into Rick’s tank top.

Rick cringed. “Shouldn’t have made you do that, but we’ve got to run.” He shifted Morty around and got his arm under the boy’s knees. “Here we go,” he said and staggered to his feet, carrying Morty’s surprisingly light body against his chest. Just as he took his first step, he felt the shield from the portal gun drop. He bolted the few steps to the ship and got Morty inside as the door to the house opened.

“Oh, Rick.” Jerry’s voice rang out.

Rick whirled around and saw Jerry walk into the garage. When Jerry turned to him, the pupils of his eyes glowed a distinctive red that Rick had never forgotten.

Without hesitation, Rick pulled a laser pistol from his thigh and shot “Jerry” in the chest. The robot crumpled and Rick sprinted to the driver’s seat. He jumped in, slamming the door and hitting the accelerator as hard as he could. The ship lurched through the garage door, blowing it to pieces, and Rick took the ship up as high and fast as he could.

As he broke atmosphere, he was breathing slower and checking his instruments. Nothing. He flipped open a control pad and typed in some coordinates.

“I always wanted to shoot that motherfucker,” he grumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a little early, but I'm swamped this week, so there you go. I hope you enjoy the read! Thank you for feedback!


	3. Going Under

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Take what you really want, R-Rick.”_

Now that the ship was on autopilot, Rick exhaled and eased his seat as far back as he could. He looked over at Morty, who was still curled up on the battered seat beside him. The boy appeared to be asleep, with his eyes closed and his yellow shirt rucked halfway up his chest. Rick reached out and stroked his hair.

“Hey. Morty.” Rick kept his voice soft. “You okay?”

Morty stirred, then leaned into Rick’s touch. “Y-Yeah…my head’s better.”

Rick continued to run his fingers through Morty’s hair, kicking himself for not having seen all this shit sooner. He had gotten complacent. How long had the fucking GF been hanging out in the house? Surely longer than today.

_They must know about him,_ Rick thought. _If it had been about me, they would have just sent an assassin. But why keep us both alive? They could have poked holes in my disguise, easy. Were they thrown because I was with a Morty? Would that matter?_ Rick’s brow furrowed in frustration.

“Where’s your Morty?” The question was barely above a whisper.

Rick jerked back, the question too close to his thoughts. “What?”

“I…I heard you. Just now. What happened to your Morty?”

Taking Morty by the shoulders, Rick struggled to get him to sit up. Finally, Morty was up and facing him, his features drawn and pale. “You can still hear me?”

“K-Kind of…it’s like an echo.”

“Is that normal?”

Morty started to shake his head and then shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never really done this much…esp-especially not to one person.”

Rick didn’t know what to say. He knew nothing about Morty’s powers. Instead, he answered the original question. “I never had children or a wife. I was on the run my whole life, just me and some friends I made over the years.” He caressed under Morty’s chin and the boy’s eyes fluttered closed. “You’re the only Morty I’ve known.”

“Rick.” Morty sighed and his voice was weak. “I’m tired.”

“So sleep.”

“Can I…I mean, w-would you…” He was visibly struggling with the words.

“What do you want, Morty?”

“Like this morning. Will you h-hold me while I sleep?”

Rick swallowed with difficulty at the naked request. He slid on his seat, pulling Morty with him, and rested his back against the door. Morty climbed onto his lap and sprawled, cheek pressed to his chest. Rick felt Morty’s arms wrap around his waist. He drew Morty in closer and brought up a hand to stroke the back of Morty’s neck until he heard the boy’s breathing shift into sleep. Rick was aching with this closeness, but also suffering from no real rest as well. He managed to calm himself into a brief sleep.

Too soon, he was stirring awake at the feel of fingers pressing into his lower back. He murmured a little, and the hands slipped around his sides and below the waistband of his pants.

His eyes opened at that and he grabbed Morty by his wrists. Morty was straddling him, looking down at his own hands, and Rick saw that his normally hazel eyes were dark. Morty had gone straight for one of his most sensitive spots. First the hair pulling, now this. Rick didn’t want to seduce him without knowing what the kid really wanted, but…shit.

“Morty,” Rick tried to control his voice, but it still came out rough. “Keep doing that and I’m not going to stop at kissing you.”

“I know.” Morty looked up. He appeared fragile and determined, innocent and debauched, all at once.

Summoning all the reserves he had left, Rick reluctantly pried Morty’s hands away from his pants. Vaguely, he wondered how he was doing this at all. His voice was still coarse as he managed, “I can make you feel good, but the last thing I want is for you to regret it. Understand me?”

“D-Do you know what I dreamed about before I came to your room?” When Rick didn’t answer, Morty went on. “That you were on me in bed and you j-jerked me off – and –” Morty couldn’t bring himself to tell Rick what dream-Rick had said, “– and I c-came _so hard._ ”

_That’s – I – fuck it!_

“Then you’re going to again,” Rick growled. He yanked Morty the rest of the way forward, claiming his mouth and pinioning his hands to the driver’s seat.

Rick’s kissed cruelly at first, but he found some restraint and slowed down. He let Morty pull in a breath before sliding his tongue in. Letting go of Morty’s hands, he slid his fingers under the boy’s ass and squeezed. Morty broke their kiss to tilt his head back and moan. Now Rick had full access to his throat, and Morty closed his eyes with a gasp at the light nip of teeth and the pressure of Rick’s tongue dragging up, clearly tasting his skin. The sound of Morty mewling drove Rick on, sucking, biting.

“Ah-h! _Fuck_ , Rick!”

Rick shuddered at hearing Morty yelp a rare profanity. Grabbing Morty’s hips to hold him still, he puffed a breath into Morty’s ear before curling his tongue around the shell. Like he’d hoped, Morty’s hips bucked under his hands and the boy’s voice cracked. Suddenly Morty was gripping the back of Rick’s neck, trying to push him closer.

_Think I found a spot,_ Rick thought hazily.

Rick redoubled his efforts, teasing out noises. Morty went for his hair again, giving the back sharp tugs.

“God,” Rick groaned directly into Morty’s ear and he felt the boy shake all over. “Fucking Jesus.” The words continued their tumble out.

Morty tightened his grip and pulled Rick back hard by the hair. He barely had a second to register the pleasure on Rick’s face, because he was crushing his mouth to Rick’s.

This was better, so much better, than his dream.

Rick dove into the kiss, shifting Morty with one arm and cupping the back of his head with the other. He wasn’t close enough, not nearly close enough. Rick squeezed the back of Morty’s neck gently and dropped his hands to the edge of Morty’s shirt. He started to push the shirt up, letting his hands graze Morty’s sides as he did. He felt Morty tense and Rick paused mid-kiss to look him in the eye.

“Okay, baby?” Rick was quiet.

Morty flushed at the term and nodded hesitantly. Rick kissed his cheek and pulled the shirt off, tossing it aside. Morty watched Rick look him over, and then he ran his hands slowly down Morty’s chest. When he got to the top of Morty’s jeans, Rick took the palm of his hand and caressed Morty’s flat stomach. Those muscles jumped, and Rick kissed him again. Rick scraped his blunt fingernails up Morty’s back.

“W-Wait.” Morty was breathless.

Rick stopped immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“I-I,” Morty couldn’t form the words, so he grasped Rick’s shirt and tugged up.

“Oh.” Rick leaned back. The grin he gave Morty the moment before he pulled the tank top off and threw it was devilish. “Better?”

Morty didn’t answer, just fell forward and pressed his cheek to the bare skin. He smelled sweat on Rick’s skin and something musky underneath that was his scent. Morty brushed his open mouth against the scattering of silver chest hair.

Rick could not deny the urgency that was building in his hard-on as Morty’s lips touched his skin. _Too fast, too fast,_ his thoughts whined. The pace was set though and it was carrying him forward.

He reached down into Morty’s lap and rubbed him through his jeans. Morty thrust into his hand and let out a strangled cry. Rick allowed himself a moment to marvel at the boy’s responsiveness. Quickly, he undid the button on Morty’s jeans and started to slide the zipper down.

“R-Rick!”

“Shh.” He slipped his fingers into Morty’s underwear. “Up.”

Morty seemed to understand and raised himself up on his knees. Rick pushed the jeans and underwear down in one movement, then stopped to take in what was in front of him. Morty’s pale skin was flushed and his erection bobbed and looked painful. Rick didn’t think and just acted.

Rick’s name ripped from Morty’s throat as his cock was suddenly swallowed. It was hot and wet and…Morty’s head fell back as Rick’s tongue danced down the shaft, across the tip. Every flick and pull shoved him to the edge, and he listened to Rick’s quiet moans the whole time. Morty was too inexperienced and overcome to hold himself still, so he grabbed into Rick’s hair to steady himself. Rick’s tongue made that impossible though and his hips continued to rock forward.

“Ah-h…jeez…Rick, I’m gonna –”

He couldn’t finish as he was rewarded by being deep-throated. Morty wailed as the orgasm tore through him as a wave that kept rolling and rolling as Rick continued to suck it out of him. Finally, it passed, leaving a cramp in his abdomen and his whole body weak. He started to slump forward, but then Rick’s hands were pushing him up by the shoulders. Morty felt Rick’s mouth, his tongue pressing in so that Morty could taste the thick saltiness that was his own fluids. Twining his arms around Rick’s neck, Morty realized he was somehow still hungry for Rick.

Rick broke away to murmur in his ear, “So good, you’re so good, Morty.” His lips pressed in a kiss, and Morty’s flesh erupted in goosebumps.

Slumping back against the window, Rick ran his hand over his mouth. He had had stab wounds that felt less sharp than what was going on in his pants. He knew he had to take care of it or just the friction of cloth on his skin was going to send him over. He slid his hand down his stomach, through the tangle of silver hairs, and grasped himself firmly. He started to stroke when he felt a smaller hand close over his. His head shot up, and Morty was leaning over him, almost nose to nose.

“Take what you really want, R-Rick.”

Rick reddened and tilted away. Even those words conjured up images. “You don’t know what you’re asking, kid,” he managed finally, as Morty’s hand squeezed.

“Yes, I d-do. I w-want you to. I want you to.” Morty finished more firmly.

All of Rick’s resistance fell away. He caught Morty’s face in his hands and gave him a hard, lingering kiss.

Huffing out a breath, he managed to say “strip” against Morty’s lips. Morty pulled back and climbed off Rick’s lap to comply. Rick slid his hand into a pocket between the seat and the door and pulled out a bottle that was already warm to the touch. He freed it and tossed it beside him. It was Daphnean lubricant, a gift from a “friend.” Lube with healing properties built in, Rick had to admit it was next level shit.

_Always prepared, Rick,_ he thought wryly. He looked up and saw Morty was already bare-assed, kicking off the last of his clothes. Hunger knotted in him, and he realized he had no time to deal with his boots or any of that crap. He settled for pushing his pants all the way to his knees. He couldn’t help but wonder why in the name of science he was wearing so many damn guns right now, because all of them were in the way. He grabbed the lube bottle, poured some in his hands, and slicked himself with one efficient stroke. Another pour, and his palms and fingers were slick as well.

Morty looked over his shoulder at him, and Rick grabbed him by the bicep. “Come here.”

The boy sniffed as he climbed on to him. “W-What’s that smell?”

Ignoring the question, Rick kissed and repositioned Morty, pelvis to pelvis, and leaving slippery spots on Morty’s fair skin. He guided his cock under Morty and shuddered all over at the feel of being between Morty’s thighs. He took Morty’s awakening sex in his left hand and leaned over to bite into Morty’s shoulder.

Morty tried to take in all the new sensations: Rick stroking him, biting him, and the feel of Rick’s erection rubbing between his legs and nudging at his asshole. That puckered place felt tender and hungry. Rick’s thumb made a deft circle across the tip of Morty’s hard-on and Morty moaned, becoming completely aroused in the older man’s hand. The lube provided Rick no resistance. His free hand cupped Morty’s backside for a moment, and then Morty lost his breath as Rick’s silky fingers massaged that tight opening.

Morty’s breath hitched and he couldn’t make a sound as Rick purred in his ear, “Relax. For me. Please, beautiful.” The massaging didn’t stop, and neither did the sliding up and down his shaft. He pressed his temple to Rick’s and made the choice to truly give himself over, tension melting from him. As he felt the last of it drain out, Rick’s finger slipped up and in. The lubricant did its job and Rick buried his middle finger all the way in until Morty felt a brush inside that sent a shot of heat to the base of his already aching sex. An undulating cry burst from him once, twice, as Rick set a rhythm. His hips were trying to respond, but Rick had made the rhythm between his hands dissonant, keeping Morty’s climax close but unreachable.

A string of groans escaped Morty, who was reduced to incoherence as Rick slid in a second finger, then a third, stretching him. Morty dug into Rick’s shoulder blades, and Rick moaned “– _can’t_ –” and he drove his fingers up one more time before pulling them out.

“W-Wh–” Morty started, but before he could get the word out, Rick had grabbed him by the hips, shifted, and impaled Morty on his cock.

Morty couldn’t hear his own screech over the sound of Rick crying out, “ _Fuck – God!_ ” Rick crushed Morty to his chest and continued, “Jesus, so fucking tight –” He interrupted himself by kissing Morty.

The only way Morty could think about this feeling was that he was being consumed. He had never known it could be like this, never known he could be so close to Rick. Rick’s hips rocked, and pleasure wracked Morty’s frame, deeply penetrated but somehow not hurting, and he felt something else – the squeeze of his own tightness around Rick’s erection. Morty started in surprise, also realizing that some of the delirium he felt was pouring off Rick, not him. Morty wasn’t even trying to link to Rick’s mind; he had lost the focus to do so. He tried to let go of Rick’s mind, but with no intended link, he found he didn’t know how.

Rick knew he couldn’t draw this out much longer. He started stroking Morty again, keeping it off-beat with his own thrusts. Everything coming from Morty was driving him insane, the noises, the smell of his skin and hair, the way he fit just so on Rick’s sex. His orgasm was rapidly approaching, so Rick brought the rhythms together for Morty and was rewarded with the boy’s fierce climax, cum spurting onto Rick’s hand and stomach as Morty howled his name again.

The sound of his own name in Morty’s undone voice ripped Rick’s own orgasm from him. He made a stuttering “ _Ah-h-h-h!_ ” as pleasure convulsed him and his fluids began to run down Morty’s insides.

Residual waves continued to hit Rick as he held Morty tight and buried his face in his chestnut hair. They both shook. Rick brought his breathing under control, counting each breath until he could relax his grip a bit. There was a burning in his chest that he hadn’t felt before but he assumed was from the release of so much pent-up hunger and lust. Carefully, he lifted Morty and pulled out of him. He scooped Morty up, leaning back against the ship door and cradling the naked boy to his chest.

Kissing the top of Morty’s head, he murmured, “Thank you.” His hands brushed lightly over the bare skin of Morty’s back and neck, unable to stop touching.

_God, Rick, who seduced who?_ he wondered, closing his eyes.

He felt Morty run a hand up his arm, going for his neck, Rick assumed, but when Morty touched his shoulder, the boy jerked his hand back and hissed like he’d been burned.

Rick’s eyes flicked open. “What? What is it?” Morty’s eyes were wide, and Rick laid his palm along Morty’s jaw.

“Y-Y-You cut yourself. On purpose!”

_Oh that._ Rick didn’t need to see the scar to know what Morty meant. “Yes. GF chips. I cut them out.” He forced himself out of the afterglow enough to stare at Morty sharply. “Are you all right? Why are you seeing that?”

“I d-don’t know, I – were they tracking you?”

Rick smirked bitterly. “Yes, with one. Electrocuting me with others. I was good, that’s why they didn’t stick them in my neck.” Morty’s eyes kept straying to his shoulder, so Rick forced Morty’s gaze back with his hand. “Why are you seeing that? You shouldn’t be using your power again, not after you collapsed.”

Morty bit his lip. “I’m not trying to, Rick. I can’t stop,” he whispered. “It just happened.”

After searching Morty’s face, Rick exhaled slowly. “Okay. Come here.” He folded Morty back into his arms, resting his chin on top of Morty’s head. Morty melted into the touch, and Rick felt Morty’s breath lightly tickling his throat.

_Fuck, the kid just lost his virginity,_ he scolded himself. _No wonder he’s mixed up. He probably doesn’t know what he’s doing anyway. Work it out later._

Rick sank back into the sea of warm sensations and emotions and held Morty for a long time, letting his fingers trail slowly up and down Morty’s spine. Eventually Morty relaxed into sleep, and Rick went soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading chapter 3! I wanted to post before the last episode of Season 3 (noooo!).
> 
> I have the flu, so my brain is too fried to say anything else...
> 
> If you are on Tumblr, please give me a follow: [here](https://wasted-truth.tumblr.com/).


	4. Once You Know, You Can Never Go Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Tell me about your accident."_

Sleep slowly receded from Rick. He luxuriated in the weight and heat of Morty pressed against him, and was careful not to move. When he was sure Morty was soundly asleep, Rick turned slightly to look at the display on the ship’s dashboard.

Plenty of time, he noticed with relief. He had set their coordinates to a remote planet. He had no intention of arriving there; as soon as they got close, he would change their direction. He feared they were being followed and he planned to jump around until he knew what to do. They could always portal out of the ship, but then their only defenses were what they could carry and what was in their heads.

_Morty, what the fuck am I going to do with you?_ Rick worried.

If it were just Rick alone, he would stand his ground. He’d made peace with death – obviously – but Morty needed to be protected. Without him, Morty could fall victim to who knows what, and that scared Rick worse than the prospect of his own death, imprisonment, or torture.

When Morty finally stirred on his own, Rick petted his hair gently. “Hey, baby.” He kept his voice low.

Morty squirmed and buried his face into Rick’s chest. “Rick.”

“That’s me. Sleep okay?”

“Uh-huh.” Morty swallowed. “Did we, I mean, did you…?”

Rick gave Morty’s hair an affectionate tug. “God, I hope so.”

Surprising him, Morty laughed softly. “M-Me too.”

“Good to hear.” Rick tipped his chin up to kiss him. Morty was completely obedient to his mouth and hand, and suddenly Rick’s never-ending libido became aware that the boy stretched out on him was quite naked.

_Shit._ Rick shifted to kiss the corner of Morty’s mouth, then his cheek. “Morty. As much as I want to lick you clean,” he touched their foreheads, “I don’t think I should start things up again. Well, not this second.” He couldn’t help but add the last with grin. He watched the questions and desire flicker across Morty’s face, before reaching down to give Morty’s bare hip a squeeze. “Come on, let’s get you washed up.”

After he got Morty up and sitting in his own seat, Rick pulled his own pants up and found some aloe wipes, thanking himself for being prepared for any contingency. Quickly, he tended to himself, then turned to Morty. He helped Morty wipe away the sweat and fluids, kissing and petting him when it came to cleaning sensitive places. That accomplished, he reluctantly gathered up Morty’s clothes and dressed him.

Morty smiled down at Rick, who was kneeling, hands on Morty’s knees. “Thanks, Rick.”

_This kid._ Rick ran his hand across Morty’s cheek. “Anytime.” He got to his feet and grabbed his own shirt from the floor. “Sit with me,” he said, pulling the tank top over his head and returning to his seat. He flopped down, back to the door again. Morty climbed up and onto his lap, resting against Rick’s chest like he belonged there. Rick let his arms drop around Morty a moment before reaching up and gingerly running his finger over Morty’s scar. “Tell me about your accident.”

“Um.” Morty shifted down so he could listen to the pound of Rick’s heart. It was comforting. “I was eight. Dad was driving with me and Summer, but Summer was in the backseat. Dad ran a red light and a truck hit us on the passenger side. I had a skull fracture and was in a coma for three weeks.”

“That dumbass fuck,” Rick said under his breath. He might not have meant Morty to hear, but Morty heard the rumble in Rick’s chest. Louder, Rick asked, “You woke up able to read minds or what?”

“I-I didn’t know right away. It took me a long time to get better, after I got out of the hospital. I slept a lot. One time I woke up, and Grandpa Rick was sitting there. He looked so upset, I –” Morty struggled with the words to explain what he did. “I was scared and I wanted to know what he was thinking. It’s like, I took my mind to him?” Rick squeezed his arm in encouragement. “I only got a b-brief flash that he was afraid I would die. I couldn’t hold on, and the pain in my head…then I puked,” he finished lamely.

“You told him?”

“No, not then. I tried a few more times, without, you know, knowing what I was doing. It got easier. We were in the garage once and I looked. He was thinking about what he was building and I asked him what a word he had been thinking meant. He started putting together then.”

Rick looked up at the ship’s ceiling, thinking and absently curling his fingers into the side of Morty’s hair. “Did you keep trying? Experiment?”

“Some. I-I was pretty young, Rick. It was scary.”

“Did you only try to read your Grandpa Rick?”

“I tried my dad once.”

“And?”

Morty wrinkled his nose at the memory. “He’s an idiot.”

Rick barked a surprised laugh. “Now _that’s_ what I want to fucking hear!” He kissed the top of Morty’s head, and Morty felt himself blush, pleased that Rick was pleased. “So you can evaluate Jerry’s negative IQ, what else can you do?”

After a long silence, Morty admitted, “I don’t know, Rick. When my Grandpa Rick died, I stopped. It’s been over four years, until now, and that time when you showed up.”

“Why’d you stop?”

Morty shrugged slowly. “I was scared to try without him.”

Rick’s arms tightened around him. When he spoke again, his voice was gentler. “Okay. Let’s focus on me then. You’ve got an old experience and some within the last day. Tell me about the first time. Everything you can remember.”

“It was right after you showed up at the house, maybe a week? Or t-two? I waited until I knew you were passed out drunk and I snuck into your room. I tried to see into your m-mind to see who you were. It’s like…like I’m touching thoughts, and then I can see and hear them. I did that and I saw a jumble of stuff. J-Jail, you running down a hallway…uh, I heard your name over a speaker…then I saw the inside of the ship and you were scanning dimensions. I got this feeling that you were hiding, but that you weren’t bad, just afraid. I k-kind of put the rest together.”

Rick was quiet a moment. “Pretty good detective work, Morty. And you decided to go along with the idea I was your grandfather.”

“N-No! I never did. I’ve always called you Rick, not Grandpa Rick. I knew the first time I saw you that…that you were _you_.”

That made Rick quiet again and he returned to absently stroking Morty’s hair. “You saw a lot.”

“Mmm,” Morty hummed. “I-I think it was easier cause you had been thinking about that stuff. And you were, y-you know, drunk.”

Rick continued to question, and Morty answered the best he could. Rick was able to pull out certain things. First, Morty seemed to encounter shit haphazardly. He could only find specific memories, like Rick taking poison, if they were fresh in the person’s mind. He didn’t seem to have much control over sensing people’s emotions, although he appeared to be dead on accurate with what he did pick up, which was a plus. Morty hinted that he could tell when Rick had been lost in thought, which Rick found interesting. Morty’s actions had been passive, mostly, and Rick was wondering how things would change if Morty tried to do specific things. One thing that was troubling Rick was that Morty was always using effort to “link,” as he called it. Rick suspected that was the cause of the pain the boy always went through.

“Does it always hurt?”

“Y-Y-” Morty started and then suddenly stopped. “No. No, Rick!” Morty sat up and turned to look at him. “When we were, I mean, when, you know, we –”

Rick tilted his head. “Had sex? Did it? Slept together? Went all the way? I could find lots of words to describe it, Morty, some more colorful.” He really wasn’t trying to be a dick; Morty needed to be comfortable talking if he was going to be comfortable doing.

Morty blushed slightly and glanced down. “Come on, R-Rick.”

“Don’t lock up on me, Morty.” Morty looked back up and Rick held his gaze. “If you want me as a lover, I need you to talk.”

_If_ I _want_ him _?_ Morty was amazed. Rick was asking him for something, something important. “O-Okay, Rick. I will. And I do.” He took a breath and said words that were foreign on his tongue. “Want you. As a l-lover.”

Rick touched his face. “Good.” He looked serious, but then his mouth twitched up at the corner. “I’m looking forward to hearing what you want me to do to you. In detail.” 

“U-umm, okay.” Morty could feel the heat in his face.

Rick pulled him back down, and Morty could feel Rick talking into his hair. “I mean it, Morty. Tell me anything.” Morty swallowed and nodded. “So, what about the pain?”

“O-Oh. When we – were doin’ it – uh, it didn’t hurt me. I didn’t even try, it just happened. Like, o-one minute I just felt everything in your head, you know? I couldn’t figure how to break the link because there _wasn’t_ one. It was like I just walked into your head. When I woke up, it was over.”

Morty was getting used to the pauses that Rick fell into when he was thinking. It made him nervous, because Rick was usually a nonstop stream of sarcasm. He seemed more serious and…intense. Morty was afraid that meant their situation was that bad. He felt Rick’s fingers move. _He’s also super touchy,_ Morty thought, and the thought bloomed some warmth in his chest.

“What’d it feel like? What’d you see? Was it different?”

Replaying everything in his head, Morty tried to pull out what he had been feeling so he could focus on what he had gotten from Rick. “Y-Yeah, it was different. I felt your emotions, but I could feel physical stuff too. A lot. Sometimes I’ve felt physical stuff in memories, but not…constant? And this was like, you know, as it was happening.”

“What did _that_ feel like?”

“Uh!” Morty’s voice cracked. “Well…it, uh…w-was…”

“Morty. Focus.” Rick’s voice was firm.

“Rick! I c-can’t –”

“Yes. You can. Come on, Morty, this is important.”

Morty just wanted to hide with the intimacies he was about to reveal. “I-I-I.” He stopped, took a deep breath, trying to bring his stutter under control. “I could feel what it felt for you to be in-inside me. While feeling you inside me.” He took another deep breath. “I felt you cum.”

Rick’s silence stretched for a long time this time. Morty started to worry if he should have kept his mouth shut. “That…had to be unexpected,” Rick sounded raspy. “And it’s fucking hot.”

“Wh-wha-”

“What I would have given for that experience some of the times I was having my ass pounded, Morty. Holy shit.” Morty’s brain did not have time to register that before Rick went on. “I think I have a theory and a plan.”

“W-What’s that, Rick?”

“I think it was easier for you because I was closer to you than anyone else. When I was close to you as I could be, your mind opened. You were forcing things before, but you didn’t have a real goal in your head. There’s the pain,” he tapped his own temple. “So we’re going to do this logically. I’m going give you some goals, and you’re going to test them out on me. If we had a third person, that would be the perfect control, but we’re up shit creek there. I want you to learn what you’re doing, Morty. Right now, you’re vulner-”

A loud beeping came from the dash of the ship.

“Motherfucker!” Rick pushed Morty up and scrambled for the source of the noise. Morty watched him angrily punching buttons. Rick checked the mirrors and then slipped his flask out of his back pocket. “Dumbass.” He took a short pull and returned it to his pocket.

“Rick?”

“S’okay, Morty. I just overshot my destination. We’re okay, though.” He came back to the seat.

“Are you s-sure?”

“Yeah.” Morty resumed his place after Rick sat. “Anyway, kiddo, you are vulnerable. I can’t tell when you are in my head, but there are people who might be able to. I don’t know. For all I know, you are setting off alarms all over the fucking place. The smart thing would be to get your power under control.”

“Y-You think they’re after me? The Galactic Federation?”

Silence, then, “Yeah. I thought it would be the Council of Ricks, but…anyway, the GF weren’t there for me, because I’d be dead or captured.” 

Fear rose in Morty. “What do we do?”

“Run.” Rick hugged him. “Trust me, I’ve got practice.”

“That’s why you wanted to leave so fast.”

“Yes. But we need to focus on your power while we’re safe, Morty. That’s priority.”

“M-Maybe I could just, like, not use it a-and not think when people are around?”

Rick shook his head. “Too risky. If they are using a device to sense you, it won’t matter.”

Dejected, Morty sighed. “What do you want me to do, Rick?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live - and Happy Halloween! Thanks for sticking in there. Hopefully I will be back on my feet in November, but I will keep my profile updated. 
> 
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	5. Be A World, Child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Aw, fuck, right in the kidney! Shit!”_

“You’re going to search my mind. I want you to try two things. First, do it without making the link that is hurting you. Second, you’re going to find a memory. I want you to find a name of someone that I used to be a,” he made air quotes, “ _terrorist_ with. There were multiple people, any one of them is fine.”

“Rick! I-I don’t know how to do that!”

Rick gripped his shoulder. “Yes, you do. You’ve already done it once, you just have to try, Morty. Think about what it was like before, then replicate it.”

It took Morty multiple tries. He kept trying to make that link that he had grown used to. Finally, he thought about what Rick said, and willed himself to relax. Once he did, Rick’s mental landscape unfolded for him.

“B-Bird…person?”

“Very _good_. Any pain?” Morty shook his head. “Excellent. Now what will your reward be?”

“Huh?”

Morty felt Rick’s arms slide around his waist and pull him closer. “What. Reward. Would. You. Like?”

“A-Aw jeez, Rick.” Morty wondered how many times Rick had made him blush in the last day.

“Come on, Morty, I’m sure you can think of _something_.”

“I, uh, l-like hearing you…talk dirty.”

 “Oh…well. That can be arranged.” Rick sounded pleased.

Morty felt Rick brush his ear with his lips, and Rick began to murmur a stream of explicit and graphic details of what he’d like to do to Morty. Rick kept it up until Morty was squirming and beet red in the face. Finally, he gave Morty a kiss on the ear and sat back with a grin.

“Was that a suitable reward?”

“U-Uh-huh!”

“Good. Round two, hopefully harder.” Rick glanced up at the ship’s ceiling. “Can’t believe I’m directing you to dig around in my fucking head, Morty. Okay, find the day that I invented my first portal gun and tell me about it. I’m not going to think about it, so you’re going to have to look. I haven’t thought of that day in a long time.”

Morty nodded and swallowed. He closed his eyes and just as he started to make himself relax, he had access. It was getting easier, he realized, until he looked around with his mental senses.

 _Where do I go?_ he wondered with despair. The surface stuff was easy; it was all up front. Behind the surface, as Morty pushed through, he realized that Rick’s mind was like an overflowing warehouse. There were decades of memories, ideas, feelings…Morty felt a rising panic.

He willed himself to be calm. _Okay, it’s Rick,_ he told himself. _There has to be some organization._

Slowing down, he took a longer look at what was around him. Stacks and stacks of memories; he turned away from those. He looked up, if there was truly an “up” here, and saw what he could only describe as a network of illuminated cables running every which way. There were four different colors that he could see: red, green, blue, and a strangely glowing black. The last one scared him instinctively. Looking around more, he could see patterns and textures on the “walls,” which he believed might reflect how Rick saw himself, built up over his years.

 _Okay. Portal gun. Portal gun, portal gun, portal gun._ Morty frowned and concentrated. _How do I find it –_

A rush of memories crashed over him, and in every one, the portal gun was featured. Most were short memories of Rick going here or there.

 _Stop!_ he thought, and they did. A phalanx of memories stood in front of him. Morty concentrated again: _Rick…making…his first portal gun._

One memory glided forward. Morty sighed in relief and touched it. He was immersed instantly, and had to remind himself to relay what he saw to Rick. He summoned even more focus so that he could watch and talk at the same time.

“Y-You’re in your apartment, working at a table covered in mechanical stuff…You’re young – oh my God, Rick, you’re only nineteen! Wait! You just dropped what you were working on and the bulb broke…the cover came off the top. You’re angry. U-Um, you’re working with the parts you’ve got on the table. Were you trying to invent a time travel device? Yeah! But you broke the insides. I-I’m skipping ahead a little…Now you’ve got something that looks like your portal gun, kind of. Smaller bulb…there’s no readout, and it doesn’t look as big. Okay, you’re testing it – it made a portal! Not as big as the ones your gun makes now, though. Um. You’re getting up and grabbing a book off the shelf. Y-You threw it through the portal…nothing happened, it just went through. Okay, you’re walking up to the portal – wow, your hair is brown, Rick! Uh! Oh, you just stuck your arm into the portal. Oh my God, you just walked into it! You didn’t even look back o-or anything!”   

“Can you follow me?”

“I don’t – yes! I just walked through the portal too. Holy crap, where is this? Everything is…is _pink_. The trees are blue! You’re standing there, and I’ve never seen you look shocked like that, Rick!”

“Okay, I think that’s enough.”

Morty felt Rick’s hand pressing on his shoulder and he carefully backed out of the memory, then Rick’s mind. When he blinked his eyes open, he saw Rick staring at him with a serious expression.

“Morty, that was…much better, it seems,” Rick said, gesturing Morty back down. He draped an arm across Morty’s shoulder. “I got the feeling you learned more.”

“I did, Rick!” Morty told everything he experienced before finding Rick’s portal gun memory.

“Jesus fucking Christ. Morty, you’re making insane progress. I can’t believe this shit.” Rick brushed his own hair back with his free hand. “Is it because you’re older? Did you not practice enough before?” He paused, considering. “Is it us, Morty?”

Shrugging slowly, Morty searched himself for the answer. “I don’t know. All of it, maybe? But I t-think it’s easier because it’s you.”

Rick made slow circles on Morty’s shoulder. “When you went through the portal gun memory, you sounded like you were looking through my eyes, but then you described what I looked like. Am I right?”

“Y-Yeah. That’s right.”

“How?”

Morty bit his lip. “I think…I think when I got more…involved, I guess, in it, I stepped into the memory, instead of watching. Like becoming a part of the movie? O-Once I do that, I can see…I can see everything, I think.”

“That…we gotta work with that. But, Morty, you did, you did fucking amazing, kiddo.” He pressed his lips to the top of Morty’s head. “You definitely deserve a reward now.”

“Again?” Morty laughed a little.

“Got to keep up the incentives. What do you want?”

“Um.” Morty took some time to think. “I-I kinda just want to make out, Rick. We never really slowed down, you know?”

“Shit, you’re making this so easy on me.” Rick sounded content, though. He shifted them so that Morty was against the seatback and he was on his right side. He tipped Morty’s chin up and took his time with slow, deep kissing.

When Morty was ruffled, out of breath, and had lips puffy from attention, Rick pulled back and caressed the boy’s cheek. “How’s that?”

“W-We need to do more of that.”

Rick chuckled. “If you insist.”

“Rick? Can…can I try something? For the next, uh, telepathy experiment?”

“Sure. It might be better for you to lead some, since you’re the one with the power. What do you want to do?”

The image of the cables in Rick’s head had never left Morty’s thoughts completely. “I don’t know, exactly.”

“Okay. I trust you.”

Morty didn’t move for a while, and then bit his lip. “I-I’m kind of scared, Rick.”

“Why are you scared?” Rick squeezed his arm.

“I’m afraid I might hurt you.” Morty had no intention of touching the black cable, but he was afraid maybe they could all be dangerous.

“Physically? Because if it’s mental, I’m beyond hope anyway,” Rick cracked.

Morty ignored the joke. “No, physical.”

“Okay.” Rick let go and rolled himself off the seat. He went to a compartment in the dashboard and pulled out an injection gun with a glass bottle attached. A sparkly pink liquid swirled inside the glass. He passed it to Morty before lying back down. “If anything happens, inject me with this. Don’t kill me, though – this won’t fix it.”

Morty turned the injection gun over in his hands and swallowed thickly. “Rick? Why do you trust me so much?”

“Because it’s you.” Rick shrugged. “Go on, now, do your thing.”

Hugging the injection gun to his chest, Morty closed his eyes and let Rick’s mind unfurl for him. He easily pushed through the present and found the cables again. He looked at all four colors and nervously chose red. He reached up and carefully plucked a red cable, like you would a guitar string.

Rick’s yell tore Morty back to the physical world. When he opened his eyes, Rick was on the floor, gripping his back with a grimace.

“ _R-Rick!_ ”

“Aw, _fuck_ , right in the kidney! _Shit!_ ”

“Rick! I’m sorry!”

“Agh, it’s not letting up – serum!” Morty hesitated. “Come _on_ , Morty!”

Morty fumbled with the gun and managed to inject the pink liquid into Rick’s upper arm. The older man took several deep breaths, then relaxed.

Rick felt the spread of the serum throughout his arm, into his chest and back, then everywhere. It was a warm tingle that swept away pain and exhaustion with it. He closed his eyes, letting it do its quick work. Whatever Morty had done…holy shit. He’d had beatings that were less painful.

_“Gotta fix you up, Rick. Wouldn’t want you to wake the other prisoners, heh heh.”_

_No!_ Rick brought his hands to his face. He didn’t want to go there, but it was no surprise. He flinched, remembering the feel of a broken leg healing after the GF guard injected him with some serum or other. Rick could hear Morty talking, but the words were lost to the rush in his ears. He heard himself cussing out the guard, threatening uselessly to put the injector in its eye – eyes – when a hand clamped onto his shoulder.

“ _Rick._ S-Snap out of it!”

That was enough to bring Rick back. He took his hands from his face and actively slowed his breathing.

“I’m so sorry, Rick! I didn’t mean to hurt you! I didn’t want you to think of that p-place!”

Morty’s anguish was apparent. Rick rolled over to face the boy and grabbed him hard by the wrist. “ _No._ Morty, don’t say sorry. This is important. You just, you just found a way to defend yourself. With your _head_. If something happens to me, or you’re alone, you’ll have a way to protect yourself.”

“I-If something happens to you?”

Rick sighed. “We have to be prepared, Morty. We don’t know what’s coming.” He let go of Morty and rubbed his own forehead. “This is good, real good.” He could feel Morty watching him closely. 

“T-Turn around, Rick.”

“What?”

Morty pushed on his shoulders. “Just do it, okay?”

Rick complied, sitting with his back to the seat, ass on the hard floor. He stretched his long legs out in front of him as best he could in the tight space. “Better?”

Morty scooted forward and sat with his legs on either side of Rick. “Yeah.” He brought his hands to Rick’s shoulders and started to massage. Despite the serum, Rick was tense. He pushed deep into the muscles, tending to Rick’s shoulders first, then the back of his neck and head, and then back down. “I didn’t want you to think of t-that. I don’t feel good about it.”

“It’s okay, Morty. I know.” Morty’s fingers were unexpectedly, pleasantly skilled. Rick let his head hang as the boy worked along the back of his neck. “It happens. The memories, I mean.”

“Why did they do that to you? Can I ask?”

Rick sighed. “Oh babe. It’s ugly.”

“It doesn’t m-make sense, Rick. Why heal you?”

“It makes too much sense.” Rick leaned a little forward so Morty could reach lower. He grunted as the boy found a particularly tense spot. “If you’re torturing someone, it’s much more fucking horrible to take them from completely healed to zero each time. If you are _being_ tortured, you start to get used to the pain if you are constantly in it. So when they healed me, the pain was new each time. When you’re healed, you start to forget what the pain is like.”

“J-Jesus Christ, Rick.”

“Yeah, well, he’s got nothing to do with it.”

They both fell silent for a while. Morty kept massaging, except for a moment when Rick leaned forward to change their coordinates again. He liked touching Rick, making him feel good. He started thinking about what he could do to test his ability again…and what he could do to make Rick forget the prison memory. The backrub was nice, but he didn’t feel it was enough.

 _If I could combine the two,_ he thought, chewing his lip absently. _What if I could make him see something? And feel something?_

“Rick?”

Rick tilted his head in Morty’s direction. “Hmm?”

“Can I try something? With telepathy, I mean.” He didn’t notice that he started rubbing Rick’s neck more earnestly.

“Sure. What is it?”

Despite what had happened with the cable experiment, Rick did not sound apprehensive to Morty. “Umm…can I not say? I don’t know if it will work. But it’s not dangerous, I-I promise.”

Rick nodded. “It’s okay, Morty. That may have sucked, but look at what you learned – what _we_ learned. Look at how far you’ve come, just today. So whatever you’re thinking, do it.”

Morty wished he could see Rick’s expression, but that was just nerves after what he had done. Intellectually, he knew Rick was serious. He slid his thumbs under the straps of Rick’s tank top and pressed the smooth skin there. As he did, he took himself through the steps of easing his mind that allowed him access to Rick. Each time _was_ easier, and he stepped into Rick’s mind, staying in the surface space this time.

He knew now that he could act upon Rick’s mind and body. What he wanted to try was to give Rick one of his own memories. When he was in Rick’s mind, he visualized Rick’s memories as standing images that he could access with a touch. His instinct was to try to project his own memory to look like that.

Again, Morty felt at a loss, but he pressed ahead with his idea anyway. He wanted to give Rick the memory that he had called “fucking hot”: when Morty had felt Rick feeling him during sex. Morty was starting to understand that how he viewed Rick’s mind was his imaginative interpretation of what was there…so shouldn’t he be able to manipulate things at will?

Concentrating, he created a standing image of his own memory like the ones in Rick’s head. He touched it and, like a movie, it started to play. In the ship, Rick didn’t respond. Morty could see it, but it seemed Rick couldn’t.

_Shit._

Morty tried different things to no avail: making the image huge, making the image cover the entire surface of Rick’s mind, joining memories together, and got nothing. He found himself staring at the “ceiling” in frustration. Four webs of cables glowed back at him: red, green, blue, and black.

 _Red must be the body,_ he reasoned. _And the others?_

He studied the patterns for so long that he heard Rick ask, “Everything okay?”

“Y-Yeah. Just…trying to figure this out.”

There did seem to be a pattern to the patterns. Black cables were the fewest, then green, then red, and blue was the most common. Morty screwed up his courage and touched – _just touched_ – a blue cable.

 _What the hell is this for?_ he wondered.

“What the hell is what for?” Rick asked.

Morty snapped back to reality. “W-What!”

“What the hell is what for?” Rick tilted his head. “What are you talking about?”

“You _heard_ me?”

Rick twisted around so he could look over his shoulder at Morty and frowned at him. “Yeah. It’s a small ship, Morty.”

Morty pulled his hands from Rick’s shoulders and squeezed the edges of the seat with excitement. “R-Rick, I didn’t _say_ anything. I _thought_ it. In your head!”

“Holy fuck,” Rick shifted more, “what did you –”

“Let me try, Rick,” Morty was so eager that he interrupted Rick. “I think I know what to do now!”

“Okay, okay. Go for it.” Rick seemed interested, instead of annoyed at being cut off.

Morty pushed at Rick’s shoulders, trying to reposition him. “Turn back around.”

Rick complied. “You’re really building up the suspense for me, here.” Morty resumed kneading. “I expect answers.”

“Done.” Morty didn’t wait for a response and re-entered Rick’s mind.

He hurried back to the cables with a hypothesis. If this was all his interpretation…and the blue cable allowed him access to Rick’s conscious thoughts…

Morty remade the standing memory video below the blue webbing. After years of watching Jerry futz with the television, he easily visualized an audio/video input cable in his hand. He created ports on the memory and the blue cable and connected them. Morty took a deep breath and started the memory with a touch. Immediately, Morty felt Rick jerk under his hands. He dug in his fingers as they both lived Morty’s memory.

He watched with fascination as his memory played. He saw so much more than he had been able to absorb at the time. There was the obvious, the bliss of being decisively taken by Rick, the sensation of being filled in a way his body didn’t understand, all coupled with Rick’s overlapping feelings of penetrating and losing himself in the euphoria of sex and release. Then there were things Morty had missed at the time: sweat running down Rick’s temple, the way their moans mingled together, Rick’s damp skin pressed to his chest.

When the memory ended, Morty dispelled it all with a swipe of his mind and simultaneously felt Rick shudder. Morty brought himself out of Rick’s head and saw Rick was slightly slumped forward, breathing rough.

“Holy fucking…Jesus Christ…is that what you…what did you just do?” The words tumbled out of Rick.

On impulse, Morty wrapped his arms around Rick’s neck. “I-I think I just gave you my memory,” he said into Rick’s hair.

Rick reached up to wrap his hands around Morty’s twined arms. “Fuck yes, you did. Is that, is that what you felt?” Morty nodded against Rick’s head. “Jesus,” Rick repeated. He pulled Morty’s arms off his neck. He moved so quickly Morty was surprised, and Rick was leaning in between his legs and kissing him.

After succumbing to the kisses for a minute, Morty pulled back. Rick almost growled and gripped him by the back of the neck. “W-Wait!” Morty panted. “Can I get a reward for that?”

“Baby, you’re about to get one hell of a reward right now.”

“No, I want something specific, I mean.”

Rick hung his head a second and made a frustrated sigh. “Okay, fair’s fair. What?”

“Tell me o-one of your k-kinks.”

The laugh Rick made was both surprised and a bit breathless. “Other than having a memory of us fucking stuck in my brain? Oh shit, Morty, there are so many, and you’ve already found some if you think about it. I’ll give you an easy one. I like you submissive, but I like it when you challenge me back even better. That enough?”

Morty took the hint and kissed him hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you are enjoying this...let's just say shit's about to get real. If you follow my Evil Morty stories, I recently updated, so please check it out! Also, [follow me!](https://wasted-truth.tumblr.com/)


	6. All These Things into Position

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Rick Sanchez…Morty Smith…I’ll get a promotion for this.”_

Rick wracked his memory and tried to ignore his grumbling stomach. He hadn’t entered these coordinates in so long that he wasn’t sure he was right. One of his watches indicated that he and Morty were well past dinnertime and getting something to eat was becoming more and more of a priority. Mentally crossing his fingers, he typed in a sequence of numbers and altered their path.

“Where are we going, Rick?” Morty was sitting sideways on the passenger seat, his knees pressed into Rick’s thigh.

Rick slumped back and patted one of Morty’s knees absently. “I hope we’re going to an outpost that’s not allied with the Galactic Federation. I used to go there all the time. There’s a restaurant, we can get supplies, check the ship over. I just know if we don’t eat soon, shit’s going to get miserable.”

“Is it safe?” There was worry in Morty’s voice.

“Eh.” Rick shrugged. “Safe as possible. There was never a GF raid there that I know of.” He looked over at Morty’s serious face. “We’ve got to eat sometime. We have burned a lot of calories.” He gave Morty a flirty look and was rewarded with downcast eyes and a smile.

_And then there’s the opportunity for using his powers on a third party,_ Rick thought, but didn’t want to broach the issue too soon for fear Morty would psych himself out. _If he can access minds other than people he is close to, he’s golden._

His amazement at Morty was growing steadily by the hour. When he had known nothing about Morty’s power, Rick’s attraction for him had been a source of confusion and self-revulsion. He didn’t want to take advantage of someone who was innocent, and the overtones of the typical Rick and Morty distribution of power only made it worse. The last thing Rick wanted to be was a Rick who had a Morty that was no better than a slave to his orders. He had the opportunity to pick up a “free” Morty at the Citadel once, but the thought had sickened him. What would he have done with the boy, other than carry him around for his shielding ability? Rick didn’t need that.

Then he had wound up with this Morty. He had tried to view the boy in an amicable but overall neutral way as he had grown. Really, Rick viewed the whole family in this light, except Jerry, who had managed to dig his way under Rick’s skin as time went on. Rick had no patience for idiocy or missing common sense. Morty, though, had potential that his own family seemed to be unable to see. He was bright, curious, and he had a compassion and respect for life that touched Rick through his jadedness. Rick had grown fond of him easily, adopting him as his sidekick of sorts, and the more time he spent with Morty, the more that fondness and a desire blossomed. He had fought the physical attraction at first, but every time he was around Morty, it grew worse. He never introspected on why; it wasn’t in his nature. Finally, he had been forced to admit to himself that those feelings were not going to go away.

And now this. The rapidly growing mental powers, the sex and reciprocated feelings…Rick’s head wanted to spin, but he couldn’t let it. The ship was a nice shelter for now, but the threat was real. All he needed to do was remember the red of the robot-Jerry’s eyes and the feel of the gun in his hand.

_How long were they there? How did I let that slip by?_

He had so many questions. It made no sense. Why would the GF infiltrate the house, when they could have scooped Morty up and killed a fugitive on their way out the door? Morty would have no defense and Rick didn’t think that the GF would find an ex-prisoner useful, especially since he had committed no crimes against them since his escape.  

_Oh, God, unless they wanted us to run._

Rick put his hand to his eyes involuntarily.

He felt Morty’s hand on his shoulder. “Rick? Are you okay?”

Rick squeezed the bridge of his nose and forced out the lie. “Yeah. I’m fine.” He dropped his hand to his back pocket and grabbed his flask. “Wubba lubba dub dub, am I right, Morty?” Morty’s brow furrowed, but Rick didn’t wait for an answer. He leaned forward to inspect the keypad while unscrewing the flask’s cap. “We’re closer than I thought,” he said with relief and took a long pull of whiskey with a dash of altered mega seed juice. “Good.” 

“Rick?”

“Yeah?” He slipped the flask back in its pocket, estimating that they had about fifteen minutes or so.

“I don’t w-want you to shelter me, okay?” Morty grabbed Rick’s arm, his voice firm despite the stutter.

“Morty…” Rick looked down at the boy’s hand, having the grace to feel guilty. “I don’t want to burden you with my speculation, especially when you can’t do anything about it.”

“That’s bullshit, Rick!” Morty snapped, and Rick’s head shot up in surprise. “We-we’ve spent all this time learning what my brain does and having s-sex and _now_ you want to act like I can’t handle it? That isn’t fair, Rick!” His face was hurt and anger, mingled.

Rick had to turn away from that look, shamed by it. He was silent before he put enough words together to say, “You’re right, it’s not fair. Maybe I’m just used to not having a partner.” He missed the surprise and blush that crept into Morty’s face. “Even when it was me, Birdperson, and Squanchy, I had to rely on myself first.” He looked back to Morty. “I’m fucked up in a lot of ways, Morty, but I don’t want to hurt you or treat you wrong.” Rick watched Morty bite his lip and stare back at him. He waited for the boy to speak, not knowing what else to say himself. Voicing his feelings was alien at best.

“I know you don’t, Rick. I’ve _seen_ what you want. What the hell, that’s why you should trust me. Just…just give me some…some consideration, okay? Okay?” Morty squeezed Rick’s forearm, hoping his words would get through.

Rick nodded slowly and took a breath. “You’re right. I’m being an asshole.”

“You’re trying to protect me. That’s not bad, just…not necessary.”

Morty surprised him by letting go of his arm, climbing over him, and straddling his lap. Rick felt arms encircle his neck and he let himself bury his face in Morty’s shoulder. He pulled the boy closer. _But I’ll never stop trying to protect you._

“What weren’t you saying, Rick?”

He struggled with how to tell the truth in the least threatening way. He _was_ just guessing; there was no need to scare the shit out of Morty with his suppositions. What Rick really wanted was to just sit here and smell Morty’s shirt until they arrived at their destination. “I don’t understand why the GF acted the way they did,” he finally admitted. “It’s not their usual behavior. Why not grab you, me, or both, if that’s what they wanted? Why send robots and not soldiers? Why let us get away?”

“Maybe…maybe they were doing, like, surveillance?”

“Mmm. I don’t know. There’s more subtle ways to spy. I – it makes no sense, Morty! It’s like there’s a big fucking piece of the puzzle I can’t see.” He pushed Morty back and rested his hands on either side of the boy’s neck so they could look each other in the eye. “I’ve dealt with them my whole life. They are regimented. Cruel. Predictable. Sometimes to the point of being stupid. They’re a militia, Morty, in every sense.”

“If you feel something isn’t right, Rick, I believe you.” Morty was earnest. “What do we do?”

Rick sighed and shrugged. “For now? Keep moving and try to get any information we can. I don’t like going up against the unknown, at all.” The dashboard chirped a warning time. “We’ll have to think of a strategy, because we can only fly around aimlessly for so long. I don’t know, call in some favors…but, there’s something I want you to do, babe, when we land.”

“W-What’s that?”

“I’m going to pick someone and you’re going to enter their mind. If you can do something while you’re in there, even better.”

Morty instantly looked worried and Rick could feel him tense up. “Aw, Rick.”

“Hey.” Rick made sure Morty was focused on him. “You can do this. Morty, we need to know if you can do this to anyone or just people you know. I’m sure you can think of reasons why.”

Nodding, Morty conceded, “Yeah.”

Rick found himself being hugged again. He relished the moment of closeness before saying reluctantly, “Not to be a buzzkill, but I need to land manually.” He brushed his lips across Morty’s cheek as the boy sat up. “To be continued.”

“Good. I’ll, uh, hold you to that.” Morty gave him a smile, and Rick felt reassured that even though Morty might be worried, he was bearing up okay. Morty returned to the passenger seat, and Rick directed his concentration to landing on the small asteroid that held their target outpost.

Morty watched through the windshield as Rick guided them in. They had been to similar places before, where it seemed like it was just a floating rock with a few shops and a place to eat on it. Now he wondered if all those places were resisting the Galactic Federation in some way. Rick usually had his reasons, so Morty was betting they were. They floated down and Rick settled the ship right next to the entrance of a well-lit restaurant.

“Let’s go. I’m starving.”

“You’re taking those guns?” Morty raised his eyebrows, looking at Rick’s pants.

“Oh shit! Good point.” Rick reached behind Morty’s seat and pulled out a rifle and handed it to him. “Here. Just in case.” He pulled a pistol off his right leg and passed that over too. “And that.” He got another rifle from behind the seat for himself.

“Th-they’re going to let us in with these?” Morty balanced the rifle across his knees and tried to jam the pistol into the waistband of his jeans without blowing his junk off.

Rick opened his door. “Oh yeah. Besides, I know the owner.” He got out and closed the door behind him.

Morty scrambled to do the same, feeling awkward with this firepower. Outside, Rick was waiting, taking a hit from his flask. When Morty was free of the doorway, he put the flask away.

“Ship.” The ship chirped at Rick’s command. “Protect yourself.”

“Ship…armed,” the ship’s female voice replied.

“Ready?” Rick’s hand pressed against Morty’s back, below where the rifle hung from its strap. Morty allowed himself to be guided toward the restaurant door. “Remember, I’m going to pick someone.”

“R-Right.” The doors slid open and they passed into the cool air inside.

“Rick _Sanchez?_ ” a garbled voice called out immediately.

“The very same,” Rick responded easily. Morty looked up at him and caught a wicked grin. “Nodlon, you motherfucker, what’s up?”

Nodlon was apparently the large, red, octopus-esque creature that was coming around the side of the counter. “Same old shit, Rick. I haven’t seen you in what, five glaagnars? What can I do for you? Need supplies? Weapons? Are you on the run? Who’s the kid?”

“Whoa, hey! Watch the third degree. This is Morty. We’re, uh, going to take a seat and then I’ll fill you in.”

Nodlon gestured to a row of booths with one of his tentacles. “You got it, Rick. Good to meet ya, Morty.” 

Morty and Rick took a booth directly behind a pair of aliens. Rick’s back was against an open booth, Morty across from him. Morty struggled with his rifle and managed to get it so that it was mostly under the table, but resting against his leg. A large-breasted, blue-furred woman took their orders. Morty picked something at random. None of the words were familiar, but this was what he usually did in that situation. Rick would have rescued him if he had made terrible choice.

Rick leaned across the table and said in a low voice, “When he comes over, read Nodlon.”

Morty nodded and swallowed. A stranger _and_ nonhuman. Rick did not pick an easy target. He willed himself to relax immediately, knowing that he might not have much time, depending on how long Rick could keep this guy at their booth. Rick kicked him playfully under the table and Morty exhaled and smiled, the lightheartedness helping.

The waitress returned with their drinks and food. Whatever Morty had ordered looked like some strange orange pasta with unknown vegetables. He tasted it apprehensively, but found it was good. It tasted like squash and zucchini, with heavy spices. He glanced up from shoveling the food down and saw Rick was doing the same. Until he started eating, Morty hadn’t realized how hollow his stomach was.

When he was about three-quarters done, Morty started to slow down. Rick was drinking from a large bottle, holding it in one hand and balancing a full fork with the other. He set the bottle down and belched.

“Oh fuck, I needed that.” He ate from his fork and then gestured to Morty’s mostly empty plate. “Good?” Morty nodded, chewing. “Good.” He glanced to his left. “Here comes Nodlon. Game’s on, babe.”

Morty looked over at his target. Nodlon came up to their table and instead of using a chair, balanced himself on some tentacles, somewhat reclined, while he folded the others like arms. Morty took himself as far to openness as he could, and only caught the beginning of Rick and Nodlon’s conversation.

“Well, Rick, what’s going on? I know you, something must be up.”

“I’m in some shit, Nod. We could use those supplies. We’re good on weapons, but food and healing stuff are a problem. I got flurbos with your name on them.”

“I don’t need your money. You’re a friend.”

“You might need it…”

Rick’s voice faded from his ears as Morty focused on Nodlon. Not having any idea what to expect, Morty was shocked when Nodlon’s mind opened at his first attempt to access it. It was not as easy as Rick’s mind, but it was like he had a skeleton key that just required a little jiggle on his part. When he stepped inside, though, it was as weird as the alien’s appearance was to him. He tried to orient himself. The “front” still seemed to be surface thoughts, memories, and feelings, but the space was red and throbbing. Morty walked around and saw webbing on nearly every wall and the ceiling in a myriad of colors. What he identified as old memories were not the simple images he saw in Rick’s mind, but piles of balls and other spheroid shapes. Morty retreated to the surface area and tried to get a read on what was currently happening. He noticed there was a large ball that was floating in mid-air and quickly spinning. He went to touch it, but found he could sense things from it as soon as his hand got close. He was washed with Nodlon’s opinions of Rick and his current thoughts.

Morty sighed in relief. Nodlon was a friend and viewed Rick as a hero of sorts. He wanted to help. Rick had placed his trust wisely. Satisfied, Morty pulled back.

He blinked and realized he was staring at the table. He looked up at Rick, who was still engaged in conversation. Rick’s eyes flicked in his direction and Morty gave him a nod. Rick looked away, but Morty felt Rick nudge his leg in answer.

He finished his dinner while Rick and Nodlon discussed supply specifics. While he ate, he noticed something he never had before. He could sense where everyone was in the room. Rick was easiest, but Morty knew he could close his eyes and point to every being in the restaurant. _Did I not notice this before? Have I really gotten that much stronger?_ Morty felt like he and Rick had tapped into something that had depths he couldn’t fathom.

“I’ll meet you out back, Rick, when you’re ready to leave. Morty, you’re quiet, son, but I hope to see you again.”

“Thanks, Nodlon. For everything,” Morty said with sincerity.

“No problem.”

Morty watched him shuffle and slither off, then turned to Rick, “I did it!” he whispered.

“Good! I want to hear everything.” Rick squeezed Morty’s arm. “Tell me when we’re in the ship. Want some ice cream?”

“Ice cream sounds great, Rick.” Morty relaxed against the booth cushion as Rick twined their fingers together. The other beings in the room were like little glowing constellations all around. The person behind him was extremely close.

_“Rick Sanchez…Morty Smith…I’ll get a promotion for this.”_

Morty sat bolt upright, but not before he saw the image of a medal decorated with a blood red cross.

“Morty?” Rick squeezed his hand, concerned. “What –”

“U-Uh, Rick?” Morty struggled to make up a coded message. “Uh, you know what the ship said? Before we came in? The ship?”

“Yes…” Rick spoke slowly, sitting up and withdrawing his hand.

“I think we should take her advice. Now.” Morty jerked his head back to indicate the booth behind them. Rick stared over Morty’s head and quietly withdrew his rifle from under the table. He started to slide out of his seat, and Morty hurried to do the same.

By the time the occupants of the other booth noticed, Rick and Morty were standing side by side, rifles drawn. The GF agent, a one-eyed skinny yellow being, started to reach for something, and Rick loudly cocked his rifle.

“Anybody else _fucking_ move and this will be a bloodbath,” Rick snarled. “Morty, get behind me.” Morty did as he said, and Rick shot the agent in the head, blowing green liquid all over the wall. Gasps went up. “That’s a fucking warning.” He started to slowly back up, scanning the room, and Morty stayed behind, also walking backwards.

In a flash of inspiration, he started tapping the minds of everyone in the room, starting with the dead alien’s seatmate, just to get their immediate thoughts. The thoughts of agents were obvious. “Them!” he pointed. Another mind. “Them!” And another. “Them!”

Rick dispatched all three with the rifle. “Shit, Morty, run!”

Morty turned and sprinted out the door while Rick covered them with rifle fire.

“Ship!” Rick yelled. “Remote start!”

The ship came to life and Morty threw himself at the passenger door. He and Rick jumped in at the same time. Rick grabbed the wheel and lifted them off the ground as several beings streamed out of the restaurant, weapons drawn.

“Ship! Keep us safe!” Rick was struggling with holding his rifle and buckling his seatbelt at the same time. “Buckle up, Morty!”

Morty tossed his rifle between the seats as the ship started to fire on the beings. He belted himself in and watched the ship mow down everyone outside. Rick threw down the rifle with a snarl and took the wheel again, taking them off the asteroid at a rapid speed.

“Goddammit – motherfuckin’ – GF – fucking bastards –” Rick swore, leaning forward as if he could make the ship go faster with willpower. “Ship! Access auxiliary power!” The ship chirped in compliance. “Increase speed twenty percent!”

“R-Rick?” Morty asked, and gripped the seat nervously. “Are we safe?”

Rick shook his head, his jaw set. “No. No, we aren’t.” He suddenly cut a hard left. “How did they know where we were going, Morty? I didn’t know where we were going until right before I set the coordinates. You _never_ knew where we were going. The ship must be bugged somehow, that’s the only thing that makes sense. The ship was sitting in the garage the whole time the GF were in the house. _Fuck._ We have to get out of here.”

“Out of the ship?”

Rick turned, and his expression made the danger even more real for Morty. “Yes. We have to portal out. The question is, where do we go? Where is safe?”

“Okay, Rick, l-let’s slow down. We need to think this out.” He reached out and touched Rick’s shoulder, and the man was clearly wound. “I-If they’re following, they’re following. We have to plan.”

Rick was breathing hard, taking the ship through twists and turns, and Morty wondered if he’d even heard. He didn’t like invading Rick’s mind without permission, but he knew time was critical now.

A blink and he was below the nest of cables. He grabbed a blue cable and channeled waves of calm and comfort down it. Letting go, he quickly returned to the interior of the ship and saw that Rick had rested his forehead on the wheel, eyes closed.

“Rick, I’m sorry.” Morty pressed his shoulder.

“No,” Rick’s eyes fluttered open and he raised his head. “I wasn’t being rational. Okay, let’s think.” He slumped back, making his flask appear and letting the ship take a direct course for a minute.

Morty grabbed Rick’s right hand while Rick drank using his left. “Is there anywhere they won’t go? What if we went back to the house? Maybe they’re gone?” He felt safer holding onto the older man.

Swallowing, Rick shook his head. “Too much chance they left someone or something behind. They might have expected us not to run.” He took another swallow. “Not too many places they won’t go either; they’re bold, entitled fuckers. There are some holdouts that they aren’t likely to approach, but I’m not sure how determined they are.”

“What about friends?”

“Heh. Slim pickings now, after they rounded a bunch of us up on Gromflom Prime. I’d try Unity…but it was trying to negotiate with the GF. I don’t know if it would hide me. And the, you know, break up.”

Morty raised an eyebrow at him.

Rick drank again. “Birdperson and Squanchy’s home planets are GF holdouts, but they’d probably expect us to go there.” He belched and muttered, “Fuck.”

Morty looked up as he heard the ship raising phaser cannons. “U-U-Uh, _Rick!_ ”

“Oh shit!” A huge black and red spaceship glided into view from their right. Morty could only assume it was a Galactic Federation ship. “ _Shit motherfucker!_ ” Rick rummaged with his pants and pulled out his portal gun. “Ship! Protect yourself!” He reached out and hauled Morty onto the seat beside him. “We’re going to run this way. Grab the rifles.” Morty grabbed their straps. “Planet Squanch it is.” He started punching the portal gun’s keypad.

“Wait! I know where, Rick!” The man looked over at him sharply. “The Citadel! They’ll never follow us there.”

“Oh, oh fuck no, Morty.” Rick shook his head violently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays! Thank you for reading the next chapter. I will be changing my posting schedule in a month or so, which I will update on my profile. 
> 
> [Give me a follow](https://wasted-truth.tumblr.com/) if you like!


	7. Hijacked Affairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you're surrounded by yourselves, can you hide, or do you only stand out more?

“But they hate the Council! We could blend in with all the other Ricks and Mortys –”

“The Citadel’s just as dangerous as the GF, Morty! You have no idea, and they’ll take everything we have to defend ourselves – guns, the portal gun, everything. The Council’s another fucking government!” A blast from the GF cruiser rocked their small ship. Rick grabbed Morty by the arm and braced them both.

“They won’t have my mind, Rick.”

“That’s what I’m afraid they will get.” Rick’s voice was low. A loud whir came from Rick’s ship and it began firing back at the GF cruiser in streaks of pink light. “No time.” He began to key a number in again.

“ _Rick_. We have no place to run to! W-We’ll just keep running! Maybe we can _hide_ …please _trust_ me.” Morty implored Rick his expression and tried to hit Rick’s mind with what he feared: that they would just hop from place to place with no plan, until they were finally caught.

Another volley hit the ship, making the lights flicker. Rick hung his head. “Under your seat, there’s a wooden box. Grab it.”

Morty hurried for the box while Rick rekeyed the portal gun. The box was about the size of a paperback book, with a sliding lid.

As he sat back down beside Rick, the older man said in a voice that was almost sad, “Ship. Start sequence lambda-four-seven-one-nine-three.”

_Chirp._ “Authorization?”

“Authorization Rick Sanchez two-seven-delta-phi-five.”

“Self-destruct initiated, in thirty…twenty-nine…”

Rick grabbed Morty by the chin and kissed him hard and quick. “Follow my lead.” He fired the portal gun, and the swirling green disk covered most of the interior of the ship.

“Twenty-five…twenty-four…”

Morty let Rick pull him up by the arm and followed one pace behind, the box clutched to his chest. There was the normal momentary portal disorientation and the sound of blood pounding in his ears.

Cool air hit Morty in the face. He blinked and saw they were surrounded by a ring of Ricks, all in uniforms of white, navy, gold. The sight made Morty dizzy; he had never seen more than one Rick at a time before. He looked from each to each, and they were nearly identical in appearance. Some of the uniforms were different, but most held black rifles stiffly against their chests.

One that had more medals and a smart looking cap stepped forward and addressed his Rick. “You should know that the Council forbids unauthorized portal gun use within the Citadel.”

“I’m sure. Couldn’t be helped. Send my apologies to the Council, Captain.” Rick returned the portal gun to its loop on his black pants.

The uniformed Rick smirked. “It’s Major. Identification?” He pulled a thick keypad off his belt and held it out to Rick.

Rick held out his hand to Morty. “Box, Morty.” Morty passed it over and watched Rick slide the lid back and pull out a gold card. He waved it over the keypad, then pressed his thumb to the top surface.

The Major held the keypad so he could read the screen. “Rick H-923. You haven’t been here in a while.”

Rick returned the card to the box and passed it back to Morty. “I can only spend so much time around you d-bags.”

“Where’d you get the Morty? Says here, you don’t have one.” The Major’s expression was sharp.

Rick crossed his arms and looked pissed. “Check your fucking readout, Major. I had a free Morty certificate the last time I was here and I got this one then. Get your shit straight.”

The Major sniffed and rehung his touchpad on his belt. “I’ll have the administration look into that. Take his guns.” Four guard Ricks swarmed Rick, pushing Morty out of the way. “I’m sure you know the drill, H-923.”

Morty watched Rick stand there, arms still folded, as each gun was yanked from him. It was like seeing him stripped, and Morty couldn’t help but cringe. And yet, Rick was defiant, all the same.

“Pat him down.”

One of the guard Ricks did so, roughly running his hands all down Rick, who remained motionless. “He’s clean, Major.”

Rick looked over at that guard. “Enjoy copping that feel?”

“He’s doing his _job_ , H-923.” The Major was clearly annoyed now. “You’re free to go. We’ll hold your _belongings_ in the spacecraft wing. But I’m sure you remember.”

“Yep. Have a great fuckin’ day.” Rick turned around and grabbed Morty by the shoulder. “Come on, _Morty._ ” The guards broke their ring and followed the Major in a single-file line. Rick started to lead Morty in the opposite direction.

The sights of the Citadel were both amazing and horrifying at the same time. Pairs of Ricks and Mortys swarmed everywhere. Morty had never seen another Morty, and it creeped him out. It was like looking into a living mirror, everywhere he turned. Looking around again, he saw that many of the Ricks looked like his grandfather: same lab coat, spiky hair, everything. That was worse than seeing himself everywhere, because now he was seeing his Grandpa Rick’s ghost. Morty was so focused on the Ricks and Mortys that he didn’t even notice there were aliens scattered throughout the crowds.

“Hey! Would you like to insure your Morty? For just a thousand schmeckles –” Morty’s head snapped to his left and saw that a Rick in a blue suit and tie was hassling his Rick, trying to shove a piece of paper in his face.

“ _No._ ” Rick shrugged the other Rick off. “I don’t need insurance.”

“If you change your mind, come on by to Salesman Rick’s! We have all kinds of useful items!”

“Fine. Great.” Rick pushed Morty faster.

Morty kept up, pulling his eyes from all the alternate versions of themselves to look around. The ceiling was impossibly high and all the walls were a white stone or marble. Huge, long windows near the ceiling revealed views of space, and there was a surprising amount of greenery about. Morty also couldn’t help but notice yellow banners that hung from nearly every wall.

“Rick?” he asked. “What a-are Morty Games?”

“No idea…that wasn’t here before.”

Rick was guiding him toward a narrower hall, and Morty could see a long counter off to the right, with several Ricks behind it. That must have been Rick’s destination, because they were soon standing at the counter in front of a Rick dressed in a smart charcoal colored suit. Morty peered around him and could see a row of glass-walled offices in the back, with Mortys working at sleek wooden desks. The Mortys were also in suits.

“Good evening, how can I help you?” the Rick in front of them asked.

Rick held out his hand for the box again. “Yeah, I need a room.” He took the box from Morty and pulled out his card, passing it to the Rick behind the counter.  

The Rick scanned it on a touchpad that was similar to the one the Major had. “Well. Your account is good. Do you know you have a lot of investments that could be cashed out as well? I could get Investment Rick for you.”

Rick shook his head. “I’ll find him later. How good is my account?”

“Very good. Cash out those investments and it would be exceptional.”

“Excellent. I want a _very nice_ room. Huge bed. Huge bath. You get me. Oh, and a rollaway for my Morty.”

Morty couldn’t help but give Rick a dirty look at that.

The hotel Rick tapped the screen a few times and waved Rick’s card again. “Length of stay?”

“Indefinite.”

_Tap, tap._ “Very well.” He handed the card back to Rick. “Your room is 736 and the elevators are behind you. Your card will open the door. Remember, the main area of the Citadel is on level five. I’ll have a Morty bring your rollaway around in a few minutes. Room service is always available. If you need anything, call the desk.”

“Thanks.” He turned and started for the elevators. “Let’s go, _Morty._ ”

Morty hurried to keep up, honestly stunned at Rick’s shift in attitude. It was like a light switch he had turned on. He wanted to read Rick, but the thought of doing it in the open like this was scary and too risky. Rick was already stepping on the elevator when he caught up, and Morty followed him on.

When the doors closed, he looked at Rick, who was leaning against the wall. “What the hell, Rick?”

“What the hell _what?_ ” Rick snapped, but his eyes flicked to the corner of the elevator, up by the ceiling. “Press seven.”

Morty turned around and pushed the button. As he stepped back, he glanced up and saw a small camera. “Y-You don’t have to be a dick, all right?” He hoped he was playing along properly.

Rick rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. “Oh no, so sorry to offend your fucking sensibilities, Morty. Shit.” He pulled out his flask and took a long drink.

The elevator chimed and the door slid open with no sound. “W-Whatever, Rick.” He stepped off the elevator first, but Rick quickly outpaced him. The hallway was opulent: white walls with ornate gold trim-work, red and gold carpet. Rick led them down the hall and found their room. He let them in with his card and ushered Morty in first. Morty walked in, staring at the huge room, and the door shut hard behind him. He whirled around and saw Rick leaning against the door, looking relieved.

“Don’t worry,” Rick closed his eyes a moment, “they don’t bug the private areas. No Rick would put up with that shit.” He held out his hand and, when Morty took it, pulled him into an embrace. Morty wrapped his arms around Rick’s waist and pressed his face into Rick’s chest. “You did very, very good,” Rick said into his hair. “And that look you gave me. Holy shit, priceless.”

“I hope I’m n-not sleeping on the rollaway bed, Rick.” Morty wanted to stand like this forever, no running, no being shot at, no weird Rick and Morty doppelgangers, just him and Rick.

“Not a chance in hell.” Morty smiled as Rick pressed a kiss to the top of his head. They stood a minute, before Rick sighed. “Okay, I’m going to run some errands and take care of my investments now, just to be safe. A Morty will bring up the bed. Play along or be quiet if that feels safer. Do you want anything?”

Morty thought about it. “I’m not hungry after…after all that. I can’t think of anything else.”

“If you change your mind, call downstairs. They’ll charge my card. I recommend the TV, though. Unbelievable cable package.” He pushed Morty back enough to give him a quick peck on the lips. “I will be back soon.”

Nervous at the idea of being separated, Morty kissed him back, a little harder. “When should I worry?”

“Give me forty-five minutes, at most. Then call for a guard. _Don’t_ come look for me yourself and don’t try your power yet.” Rick stroked his cheek. “But I won’t need forty-five minutes, okay?”

Morty took a deep breath. “Okay. B-Be careful.”

“Always, babe.” Rick untangled from him before opening the door. “You’re too good to me, you know?”

With that, the door shut behind him, and Morty was alone for the first time in what felt like weeks. It was so hard to believe that only a little more than a day had passed. One long insane day. “You’re too good to _me_ , Rick,” he said aloud to the room.

Morty took a tour of the room; it was a suite, really. The hall door opened into a living room, with a large couch and two overstuffed chairs surrounding a coffee table. He had tossed Rick’s box onto the coffee table without thought when he came in. Up against the wall was a large flat-screen TV on a stand, with a carved wood desk to its left. Off the living room was a short hallway, with the bedroom to the left and the bath to the right. He peeked into the bedroom and a giant bed took up most of the space, with another flat-screen TV and the usual bedroom furniture finishing the room out. In the bathroom was a deep jacuzzi tub and a stand-alone shower. There was also a stackable washer-dryer in one corner. Morty was impressed and couldn’t help but wonder how many schmeckles this set Rick back per night. _How many does he have, anyway?_

There was a faint rapping on the suite door. Morty hurried out of the bathroom to answer it. When he swung the door opened, he was face-to-face with a copy of himself, dressed in a suit and towing a rollaway bed. Morty opened the door all the way and gestured for the hotel Morty to come inside.

“G-Good evening, sir. Where w-would you like the bed?”

Morty had his mental guard up – he hadn’t let it down since they had portaled in – but looking at this other Morty, he felt a strange resonance. It was as if they shared a connection of some kind, and it was something beyond mental and physical similarity. He wanted to explore, but knew he would have to open himself to do so. _Maybe I’ll have another chance later,_ he thought.

“Uh, just over there.” He pointed to the far corner of the living room.

Hotel Morty started wheeling the bed in that direction. “Very g-good.” When he got the bed in position, he asked, “Would you like me to o-open it for you?”

“No, t-thanks.” Morty just wanted him to go. He wanted to investigate this sensation, but he also couldn’t stop feeling weirded out. “I’ll get it later.”

Hotel Morty nodded and walked toward the door. “Very good. If you n-need anything, please call.”

Morty sighed with relief when his duplicate let himself out. He flopped on the couch, sinking into the comfortable brocade cushions. He found the remote and started flipping, quickly settling on a science fiction movie that he remembered seeing the commercials for. There were a lot of alien channels, which must have been what Rick was referring to. Morty propped his feet on the coffee table and immediately kicked Rick’s box with his foot. He managed to grab it before it hit the floor, but the lid slid off. Pulling both onto his lap, he looked inside, curiosity getting the better of him.

The box was almost empty. The only thing inside was a flat green packet that looked like it had the flexible circuit board of a calculator glued to it. Morty frowned, unable to identify it, and closed the box back up. He put the box back on the coffee table and watched his movie.

Before even a half-hour had passed, the door opened, and Rick walked in, carrying a brown grocery sack. The door shut behind him, and he walked over to Morty. “I see you found the TV. Not bad, right?”

“It’s good.” Morty scooted over. “Wanna sit?”

“Oh no.” Rick shook his head. “Get the channel for that show. I’m lying down. Come on.” Morty began fumbling with the remote, and Rick carried the bag back to the bedroom. Once he got the channel number, Morty flipped off the TV and followed.

Rick had set the bag on the floor and pulled out a liquor bottle. He placed it on the nightstand and tossed his flask beside it. “Turn on the TV, Morty.”

Morty found the remote on his nightstand and put the movie on, while Rick sat on the edge of the bed and unlaced his boots. Morty did the same, kicking off his shoes and socks, and then climbed on the bed next to Rick.

“Oh, holy shit, a flat surface,” Rick groaned, stretching out. He rested his head on the pillows and pulled Morty close. “No more sitting.”

Morty relaxed against him, draping himself across Rick while Rick’s arms wrapped around his back. Rick was right; after an entire day trapped in the ship, lying down was pure contentment. “What’d you buy?” he mumbled into Rick’s shirt.

“Mmm, booze, soap and other stuff like that, junk food, surprises…”

“Surprises?”

Morty felt Rick’s hand rub the back of his neck. “Can’t tell you. They’re surprises.”

“I can j-just look in the bag, Rick.” He felt like he was slowly melting under the firm pressure of Rick’s fingers.   

“Humor me, baby.”

Each point of pressure on his neck was making his spine loosen. Morty didn’t think he could deny Rick anything right now. “Okay…” He brought his arm up so that it draped over Rick’s shoulder. “What about y-your investments? Were they good?”

Rick smiled up at the ceiling, feeling Morty continuously relaxing against him. He focused on making slow circles right at the base of Morty’s skull. “The last time I was here, I put a lot of schmeckles into a few funds that they run. They were low-risk, high-reward, on the condition that I not withdraw the money for a set period. I passed that period and they continued to mature. Long story short, we have plenty of schmeckles.”

“Were you planning on coming back here?”

“No.” Rick let his other hand start rubbing Morty’s lower back. “I wanted to be prepared, though. I try to keep caches of money in different places. Comes in handy.”

Morty was quiet, listening to Rick’s heartbeat while he formed his question. “How do you…how do you stand seeing other Ricks?”

Surprised, Rick almost stopped massaging, but caught himself. “Uh, I guess you’re referring to the Morty that came to the room? And all the other Mortys you saw.”

“Y-Yeah.”

Rick sighed and tried to think of how he initially reacted to other Ricks. He didn’t encounter a swarm of himselves at a place like the Citadel as his first experience. He first came across other Ricks through portaling to other dimensions, then through resistance efforts against the GF, and sometimes he would encounter Ricks when visiting attractions like Blips and Chitz. Even after years of exposure, the Citadel had been a shock. “It was weird. Really fucking weird. I didn’t get the firehose that you did, either. Anyway, it gets easier with time, and I’ve had a lot of time. I’m not quite sure what else to tell you.”

Morty squirmed and somehow managed to get a little closer. “When you see them, d-do you… _feel_ something?”

“Feel something? Like what?” Rick’s brow furrowed. He usually felt irritated.

“Like a connection? A connection that isn’t just because you’re different versions of each other?”

“No. I guess they feel like brothers, sort of, but I don’t think that’s what you mean.”

“N-No, it’s not.” Morty sounded dejected.

Concerned, Rick curled his fingers into Morty’s hair for a moment. “Did you use your power around that Morty?”

“No, Rick.” He lifted his head enough to meet Rick’s eyes. “I haven’t let my guard down the whole time we’ve been h-here. It was something different. I w-wasn’t around him long enough to figure it out.”

“Okay.” Rick brushed Morty’s hair back with one hand. “You’ll figure it out. I’m proud of you, you know.” 

“W-Why?”

Rick couldn’t help but laugh a little. “After all you’ve done today? Mind blown, babe.”

Morty cast his eyes down, looking embarrassed. “A-Aw, jeez.”

Dropping his arms down, Rick rolled over with Morty in one neat motion. With Morty lying on his back, Rick propped himself up over him. “I’d like to show you how impressed I am…and take advantage of this bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading. I hope you liked this chapter.
> 
> I feel like we're all in this terrible R&M hiatus desert until Season 4 comes out. Visiting Pocket Mortys like this helps!
> 
> [Give me a follow if you like!](wasted-truth.tumblr.com) See you with EM in a few weeks.


	8. Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Once an enemy of the Federation, always an enemy."_

Rick kissed Morty before sliding down to his waist and pulling up his yellow shirt halfway. He licked a slow swipe from the edge of his jeans up to his belly button. Morty’s skin still tasted a little salty from the sweating he had done in the ship.

Bringing his hand to the back of Rick’s neck, Morty closed his eyes at the feel of Rick’s tongue. Rick was wasting no time making up for all the desire he had been harboring for Morty. In the ship, they had had done it two more times after the first. They were severely hampered by the confines of the ship, but the last time, Rick had turned Morty around on his lap and taken him, back to chest. Morty found himself excited at the idea of what they could do with some space.

_Oh shit,_ Morty thought as the licking continued across his abdomen. _How am I going to keep the guard up in my head while I’m with Rick?_

“Uh-h, Rick?” He tugged on Rick’s hair.

“Hmm…what, babe?” Rick mumbled against his skin.

“Problem?”

Rick immediately sat up. “What?”

“I, uh…I’m not sure how to keep from touching your mind while we, you know, h-have sex.” Rick frowned and put his hand on Morty’s neck, before Morty continued, “I’ve never shut you out before.”

Rick stroked the side of Morty’s neck. “Shit. You can’t open yourself here.” He rested his forehead on Morty’s chest and muttered, “Think, Rick.”

Morty ran his fingers through Rick’s hair while Rick was quiet in thought. Suddenly, he felt desperate for the cramped privacy of the ship. At least there, his “power” didn’t have the opportunity to kill a chance at intimacy.

Rick looked up. “What if we do a reverse experiment?”

“W-What?”

“Instead of seeing how good you are at probing my mind, you see how good you are at keeping yourself _out_. Can you tell when you are about to go into my mind?”

“Yeah. I relax.”

Rick’s fingers caressed his neck again. “Would you know if your defenses were getting too low – just _before_ your mind opened?”

“I t-think so?”

“You’ve got to be sure, Morty.”

Morty closed his eyes and replayed the past times in his head, then nodded.

“Okay.” Rick shifted so he could kiss Morty’s cheek. “Let’s try this. Try keeping yourself so that you don’t go into my head, however works for you. If you feel you can’t stop yourself, _we’ll_ stop.” He kissed Morty’s jaw. “And we’ll go very slow. You know, so you can experiment,” kiss, “not for any other motive.”

That made Morty smile. He was worried, but wanted to try. “If you’re sure…”

“We’ve done pretty well so far.” Moving back down, Rick said, “Glad I got some of those surprises now.”

“Why is that?” Morty felt Rick’s hands clasp his waist.

Rick nuzzled his stomach. “Because they are of the slow variety. I’m going to broaden your horizons, but not too fast.” He tongued a circle around Morty’s bellybutton. “Plenty of time for that.”    

Morty kneaded Rick’s shoulders and toyed with his hair, while Rick returned to languidly licking Morty’s skin. As he did, Morty tried to visualize an actual wall around his own mind and still focus on the physical. Rick pushed Morty’s arms up and pulled his shirt over his head. Morty gasped as his nipple was bitten, but the mental wall stayed up.

Rick gave his chest attention, gently moving Morty’s hands away if he started touching Rick too much in response. Finally, Rick drew back and put his hand on Morty’s chest. “How’re you doing?”

“I’m okay.” He squeezed Rick’s bicep. “I-I’m liking this very slow stuff.”

“Good, because I think it’s surprise time.” He patted Morty’s chest and climbed off him. Morty propped himself up on his elbows to watch Rick rummage through the grocery bag. “Now, these aren’t the most exotic surprises, but I think you’ll like them.” He put a candle poured into a heavy glass holder onto the nightstand and lit it with a lighter that was concealed in his hand. Setting the lighter down, he went back to the bag and pulled out three different bottles, which he also placed on the nightstand. He turned back to Morty, his hands moving for Morty’s jeans. “Let’s get your pants off.”

“W-What about your clothes?”

“Staying on for now.” He slowly pulled down the zipper. “I’m giving you some well-deserved attention.” Grabbing the waistband of Morty’s pants, he pulled off the boy’s jeans and underwear in one motion. “Roll over.”  

Turning onto his stomach, Morty began to smell the candle that was flickering silently. It smelled musky, with hints of…chocolate?...and other scents he couldn’t identify. “What’s that candle?”

“Eh,” Morty heard Rick moving bottles on the nightstand before he answered. “Agave and cacao, same as this.” Rick climbed onto the bed.

Cool liquid suddenly drizzled onto the middle of Morty’s back. He heard Rick rubbing his hands together, and then Rick was spreading the oil across his back. Rick started massaging up at Morty’s neck, and Morty rested his head on his arms. Rick’s kneading was deep, hitting tight places Morty didn’t know he had. He sighed involuntarily and rested his forehead on the duvet. He checked his mental barricade and found it was still in place. Relieved, he let his mind drift with Rick’s touch.

The events of the last day – probably more than a day –  were starting to sink in, now that things were calm. The first thing to strike him was the immediate moment – that he was naked, in a hotel, oiled up by Rick. It had never occurred to him that his life would make a turn like this. He always assumed that he would get a girlfriend and eventually become sexually active, by the time he was old enough to drink, if he was lucky. Instead, he was fourteen, and he was sleeping with a man – not even a boy his own age, but a _man_ – and that man was Rick, of all people. But he wouldn’t change it, he knew that much. Rick had unlocked something in him, and he never wanted to go back.

_Didn’t you idolize him, before, though?_ The thought crept up. _Laugh a little too hard at his jokes? Look forward to the missions more than anything else?_ Morty had to admit to himself that these things were true, too. Perhaps he had hidden his own feelings from himself. Maybe he hadn’t known what they were.

Rick suddenly hit a sore spot in Morty’s lower back, making him hiss involuntarily.

“There’s a knot.” Rick said, placing a kiss on Morty’s shoulder blade. “Some built up stress – it’s like a ball.” He started working on it with his thumbs.

Groaning quietly, Morty buried his face. As Rick loosened the knot, emotional poison bubbled out of it. His mind turned from his new connection to Rick, to the dark parts of the day. He saw himself walking out of his house and into the garage for the last time.

_My sister. My mom. My dad._ He hadn’t seen what Rick had, the red eyes that clearly marked Jerry as an android, but he knew that the people around the breakfast table had not been his family. _What happened to them? Are they dead? Did the GF kill my family because of me?_ Guilt and grief crushed the air out of him. He tried to hold back tears and not shake, but hiding it from Rick was impossible.       

“ _Whoa._ Hey. Morty, what’s wrong?” Rick put his hand under Morty’s chin and tilted his head up.

“R-Rick. What happened to my family?” Tears escaped and spilt down his cheeks.

“Oh, fuck,” Rick sighed. He laid on his side next to Morty. “Come here.”

Morty moved against his chest, pressing his face against Rick’s shirt. Rick hugged him tightly. The embrace was warm and made Morty feel protected, but he couldn’t stop trembling.

“Morty, I don’t know. I’m not saying that to blow you off or hide the truth. I really don’t know. I told you before, I don’t understand what they were doing in the first place. They could have taken your family to a GF planet and relocated them. They might be hostages. They might be dead.”

Morty let out a sob.

“I’m sorry, babe, but that’s the truth,” Rick continued. “It’s not easy to hear, I’m sure.” He rocked Morty a little. “If you want to find a way to figure out what happened to your family, we can. It’s up to you.”

Morty sniffed, feeling dampness on Rick’s tank top from his tears. “I do. If they are trapped or w-worse…”

“Okay, if that’s your decision. _We_ have to be safe first, though. Trying to come at the GF now would be suicide.” He let Morty calm down before pulling him back so he could look the boy in the eye. “Do you want to become a resistance fighter, because that’s what this means.” His voice was very serious. Morty swallowed and nodded. “It’s not something you can give up, Morty. Once an enemy of the Federation, always an enemy. I’m also not going to sugar-coat it and tell you fucking fairy tales. Once you pick that life, it’s for good.”

“I understand, Rick.” _Weren’t they my enemy first anyway?_

“Okay.” Rick repeated. He pulled Morty back in and set his chin on the top of Morty’s head. “Shit.”

Morty didn’t need to read Rick to pick up on his concern. He let Rick hug him and realized he hadn’t paid attention to his defenses. He checked – they had faded, but not gone away completely. He built them back up and allowed himself to soak in Rick’s comfort.

After a while, Rick asked, “So what do you want to do now? Want to get some sleep?”

“No.”

“No?”

Morty put his arm over Rick’s neck. “We were r-reverse experimenting. We should finish.”

“Are you sure?” Morty nodded, and Rick maneuvered to give the boy a kiss. “Got a lot of guts, kiddo.”

Morty kissed him in return and was startled when Rick swatted him affectionately on his bare ass. It tingled and stung, and left him kind of excited. He felt heat in his face build up quickly.

“On your stomach.”

Resuming his position, Morty felt Rick pour more oil on him. Oddly, he didn’t feel slippery all over. It seemed the oil had dried, leaving a soft feeling behind.  

Rick put his hand on the knot he had been working on when Morty had broken down. “Do you want me to mess with this or leave it alone?”

_I guess I’d better deal with it – and the feelings._ “M-Mess with it. It hurts.”

Rick began digging in with his thumbs again. He made circular motions, ran his thumbs up and down the body of the muscle, and slowly it began to loosen. Morty felt the fear they had experienced that day come up, but he forced himself to stay in the present, and soon it passed through him as the knot relaxed.

“I think I got it. How do you feel?”

“Much better,” Morty sighed. “Thank you.”

“Guess we know where you hold your stress.” Rick returned to his general massaging, moving lower, to Morty’s ass, then down to his thighs. He picked up Morty’s right thigh and massaged it all around with both hands and then did the same with the left. He repeated this with Morty’s calves and ankles, and then reapplied oil to massage his feet. He took his time there, slowly rubbing up the center of the bottoms of his feet, between his toes, and over the tops of his feet.  

Morty felt completely dissolved into the bed. He kept having to remind himself that he was supposed to be blocking Rick out, but he managed to keep his defenses intact. He was starting to wonder if this worked in a similar way as being in someone else’s mind; that is, it was manifested as his own imaginings. As long as he kept his wall image in the corner of his mind, things seemed to be all right. Morty viewed this as a victory so far, just because he was relaxed beyond the point when he found it possible to enter another’s mind.  

Setting Morty’s foot back on the bed, Rick turned to the nightstand. Morty didn’t even stir, eyes closed, cheek resting on his folded arms. “Now,” he heard Rick say, “I don’t want you to think this candle was just for ambiance.” Fiery hot liquid unexpectedly poured on his skin, from the base of his neck to the base of his spine.

Morty yelped, jerking so that he was propped on his hands. “R-Rick!” he gasped. _Did he just burn – holy –_ He took a deep breath. It felt…it felt _good._ Like, really good.

“Yes, Morty?” Rick was right next to his ear.

“D-Do that again.”

“Mmm, if you like.”

Burning wax immediately pooled by his tailbone, and Morty bit his lip hard. There was no doubt that this was getting him aroused.

As the candlewax cooled, Rick ran a finger along the edge. “I’m pleased that you like a little pain.” He traced around the puddle. “Maybe that’s one of _your_ kinks.”

“M-Maybe? We should do this stuff again, you know, to ch-check.”

“Uh-huh. To check,” Rick snorted. He carefully peeled off the wax, working from Morty’s neck to his tailbone. When the wax was gone, he put his hand on Morty’s back. “How’s your mind defense doing?”

“Okay.”

“Good, because I am not done with you.” Rick’s hand slid down. “On your back.” He took his hand away and moved so that Morty could roll over.

Rick was leaning over him, burning candle in his hand. He gave Morty a smile and dripped wax straight down his chest, hitting a nipple along the way. Morty hissed and wriggled. The skin of his chest was more sensitive than his back, and his nipple…Morty gripped the bedding, attempting to hold himself still. Rick continued to make lines of wax on him, eliciting more and more little noises.

Unexpectedly, he grumbled, “I’m out of wax.” He returned the candle to the nightstand. “But this was nice and revealing.” He peeled the wax from Morty’s chest, then picked the oil back up. He quickly oiled up Morty’s chest, and it soothed the reddened skin. Leaning down, Rick gave Morty a lengthy kiss. “I like your kinks.” Morty just put his arms around Rick’s neck and deepened the kiss with his tongue. Rick responded in kind, but pulled free too soon for Morty. “Keep going?” Rick asked, and Morty nodded.

Rick grinned and pulled his tank top over his head. He returned to kissing Morty, and the kiss went deep right away. Morty grazed his fingers up and down Rick’s bare back. They spent a long time making out, then Morty moved his hands to unbutton and unzip Rick’s pants. Rick started when Morty slipped a hand in and took his cock. He broke the kiss and asked quietly, “You okay going further?”

Morty gave him a squeeze. “Yeah.”

“All right.” Rick reached down and put his hand over Morty’s. “I trust you.” He tightened his fingers.

Morty pulled Rick back down into a kiss by his hair. He felt Rick moan and then started to stroke him deliberately. It didn’t take long for him to get Rick erect. Rick tilted his hips toward Morty’s hand and pulled back again.

“Time for pants off,” he said, a bit breathlessly. “Are you okay? I gotta keep asking, cuz things are fuckin’ moving now.”

“I-I know.” Morty looked up into Rick’s eyes. “I’m still okay.”

“If you start to lose control, I don’t care what’s happening, we stop. Understand?”

“Yeah.”

Rick kissed Morty’s ear while pulling his hand away. Tilting his head, Morty watched as Rick kicked off his pants. Rick took two bottles from the stash on the nightstand and tossed them beside Morty. He climbed over Morty, between his legs, and started kissing his neck. Morty hooked his ankles around Rick’s legs as Rick started to tease his crotch, moving from his penis to balls, to the skin behind them. Rick bit his neck as he grabbed the man’s ass.

Morty forced himself to concentrate more consciously on blocking Rick now that he was totally aroused. He was afraid that he might just lose his grip if he wasn’t vigilant. Visualizing a stone wall that would belong in a castle fortress, he scraped his short nails up Rick’s backside. He felt Rick respond by making a circle motion across his anus. A moan escaped Morty’s mouth.

“Still okay?” Rick kept moving his fingers.

“Y-Yes.”

The pressure left from between his legs, and Rick picked up one of the bottles. He poured a generous amount onto the middle fingers of his right hand, and then went between Morty’s legs. Morty felt cool slickness and pictured his castle wall while Rick pressed two fingers in. It didn’t stop him from arching his back and crying out. _Wall. Wall._ Rick let him relax before starting to move his fingers back and forth.

Morty panted. This was getting much less easy, and fast. He was losing control. On top of that, his rectum felt like it was growing tingly and numb. “What…what’s _in_ that?” he puffed.

“Lidocaine,” Rick answered, adding another finger as he spoke. Morty moaned sharply. “Not as good as what I had before, but it’ll keep you from hurting.” Rick kept up with his fingers, while Morty twisted and struggled to keep his breathing steady. “Morty.”

“Huh?” Morty’s eyes flickered open. He could already feel a climax boiling up.

“Last warning. You can still stop me at any point, whatever. But if you start to cum, you’re not going to be able to stop _that_. You gotta be ready.”

“I know.” Rick was still finger fucking him, and he took a breath. “I’m focusing…I’ll stop you…if I have to.”

Rick kissed Morty’s chest and carefully removed his fingers. The numbness had really set in, and yet Morty had been able to feel everything Rick had done. He looked over to see Rick pouring liquid into his palm and then coating his own erection. As Morty reinforced his mind wall, knowing what was coming next, Rick sat up on his knees. He took Morty by the hips.

“Put your legs around my waist.”

Morty did, awkwardly and with some leverage from Rick, and felt the slow, pervading penetration. Rick’s cock slid in with minimal resistance. Morty would have marveled at the second lubricant, but he was busy thinking _wall_ as Rick hit his prostate.

“R-Rick!” Morty clawed at the bed, and Rick pulled nearly all the way out and slammed back in. “ _Ah!_ ”

“Oh _yeah_ , this is better than _fucking_ … _confinement_.”

With each word, Rick thrust himself in and out, making Morty writhe and squeak and voice other incoherent noises. Morty started with his hands at his sides, but somehow they wound up above his head, clutching the pillow.

“Now I can really fuck you _hard_ , Morty.” Rick dug his fingers into Morty’s skin. “Gonna find out what undoes you, then I’m gonna make you forget your goddamn name. _Every. Chance. I get._ ”

Morty tightened his legs around Rick’s waist and whimpered, “ _Ah-h, God, Rick!_ ” The dirty talking drove Morty crazy, no doubt Rick’s intention.

Rick groaned and panted. “That’s right, Morty, I wanna hear you.”

_Gotta focus, gotta focus!_ Morty forced himself to see the castle wall image, and saw it was starting to wane. Concentrating, he tried to fix it, but the driving into his g-spot and the mounting of ecstasy was overwhelming. _Damn it!_ He redoubled his efforts and was successful but panic still rose.

“ _Rick_ …close,” Morty managed to force the words out.

Rick gave him a fiendish grin and sped up his rhythm. “Like that.” Yet, he also squeezed Morty’s hip in what Morty believed was reassurance.

 “ _Nghhh_ ,” Morty dug into the pillow with his fingers. Things were moving much quicker for him in this position. He didn’t know if it was the angle or the fact that Rick had total control. _What would it be like if I could touch his mind, though?_ He wanted so badly to know and his concentration slipped badly at the thought. “ _Shit_ ,” he gasped. Rick growled in answer, but Morty didn’t notice. He struggled with his wall but he was losing out.

“ _R-Rick! I’m –_ ” Morty’s back arched as he lost the words to a loud cry. He came hard, fluid spurting down his stomach and chest. Euphoria radiated from his pelvis throughout him.

Rick closed his eyes and hissed, “ _Yes._ ”

As the pleasure began to recede, Morty went limp, relying on Rick to hold him up as he continued thrusting. Even his legs weakened and so did his grip on Rick’s waist. He closed his eyes and let out an audible sigh.

A few more jerks from Rick’s hips, and Morty felt Rick cum inside of him with a loud moan. Rick let out several shaking breaths, before carefully pulling out. He arranged Morty’s legs back on the bed and leaned down to lick Morty clean. Morty lifted his arm weakly and rested his hand on the back of Rick’s neck.

_Oh shit! Did it work?_ Morty checked the barrier between his mind and Rick’s. It was there, but barely. It was very thin, as if the stone had become a pane of opaque glass. _I did it, though._ He breathed a sigh of relief, and caressed Rick’s neck. He began to mentally rebuild.

Rick climbed over him and kissed his cheekbone. “Are you still safe?” he asked softly.

“Y-Yeah. It was close, but yeah.”

“Good,” Rick said, obviously relieved as well. “Hopefully, like everything else, you’ll get better.”

“Yeah,” Morty agreed, before Rick locked him in a kiss.

Rick pulled back after a long time. “Ugh, Morty. We’ve gotten so little sleep.” He ran his fingers through Morty’s hair. “Want to get under the covers?”

“Okay…I am tired.”

“Me too, babe.”

TV off, candle out, Morty curled up with his back to Rick’s chest. Rick pulled the covers up, and Morty was wrapped up in his arms right after. Closing his eyes, he felt Rick nuzzling his shoulder.

“God, you smell good,” Rick murmured. “So tell me how much you liked that.”

“A-A lot.” Morty laughed almost soundlessly. “You know that.”

“I do, but I love hearing it, which _you_ know.” Rick pressed his lips to Morty’s shoulder and then drew the boy completely back against him. “This day has been fucking…I don’t know. Fucking something.”

“I-I think…it’s been everything, Rick. It’s been everything.”

Rick’s chin rested on top of his head. “Yeah, Morty.”        

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead! So sorry for the long delay in posting. Life has been insane. I hope you enjoy this next chapter - I think Rick and Morty deserve this one.


	9. Before We All Go Under

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Bad things are coming. Prepare. Protect.”_

Morty knew he was dreaming. He was walking through an empty Citadel, and the huge space was dim and foggy. He felt exposed, but he didn’t know who or what he was exposed to.

_“You’re new here.”_ It was not one voice but a chorus of voices that seemed to come from everywhere.

He whirled around, but he was still alone. “Y-Yes,” he called out. “Who are you?”

_“We are Mortys. We are all connected, even you.”_

“C-Connected?” _That’s what I felt around that hotel Morty!_

_“You think you are alone. You think you are different. We are all different and yet the same.”_

Morty was flooded with images: alien Mortys, Mortys with defects, Mortys in different roles, even a Morty who had the ability to affect the physical world with his mind. Morty wanted to question the last one, but then he saw a Morty that was surrounded in a golden glow. Shocked and overwhelmed at the sight, Morty’s mouth went dry.

“Who…?”

_“The future. One day, all will change for us Mortys, but that is not why we speak to you now. We know of your mind power. We know that you are in love with your Rick. You must protect yourself and him.”_      

“H-How do you –”

_“We are everywhere and we see. Bad things are coming. Prepare. Protect.”_

Morty could feel the voices receding. “Wait!” But he was too late, and the dream faded to white, then black, and he woke up with a jerk. He felt sweaty and his heart was pounding. His back was still pressed to Rick’s chest, and after that warning, Morty was relieved to feel him there. Rick’s arms tightened and he mumbled something in sleep-speak before relaxing again.

_“Bad things are coming.”_ Morty heard the voices repeat in his memory.

_Should I tell Rick?_ He thought about it. They knew that they were still in danger and they intended to plan. They couldn’t stay at the Citadel forever. He also didn’t want to muddy the waters trying to figure out this Morty thing when they needed to focus on escaping the GF…and then there was his family. He could do the two things the Mortys had told him to do, prepare and protect, and keep the dream to himself.

_“We know that you are in love with your Rick.”_

_Am I? Is that what this is?_ Morty didn’t know what it meant to be in love. He dropped off to sleep again, pondering the possibility.

***

After years of sleeping on a cot, and years before that often sleeping on a floor or against a wall, Rick held himself in a state of half-wakefulness so that he could luxuriate in the feel of a down mattress and pillows and silky sheets…and Morty, a warm weight in his embrace. He just wanted to draw this bliss out, for himself and for his young lover, as much as they could before they returned to the troubles they faced.

_Just a day. Maybe two. Two days without constant panic and planning. Please._

Rick knew he would have to keep himself from slipping into either hedonism or GF fueled fear. Having a new romantic interest was enough to drive him to barricade the door and keep Morty very occupied. On the other hand, after years in prison, trauma had left him a mess inside that he could only cope with by using avoidance and alcohol. Now he had to confront those fears, all over again, and face the fact that Morty was at risk too.

_I need to be cool. I can balance this._ Rick didn’t even want to think about Morty’s desire to find his family. _I’ll deal with that when the time comes._

He got himself to float again on the soft bed. Eyes closed, he could hear Morty’s breathing, slow and light with sleep. Rick almost drifted back off when he heard Morty start to wake up. When Morty stirred and rubbed his face, Rick pressed a kiss to the side of his neck.

“Good morning. I think.”

“M-Morning.” Morty yawned. “What time is it?”

“Mmm. No clue.” He brushed his lips across Morty’s ear to feel the boy shiver. “Can you wait on breakfast and take a bath with me?” 

“I-I don’t know, Rick. Sounds like a tough call.”

Rick grinned at the cheekiness. “You’re right, Morty.” He let his hand slide across Morty’s stomach. “Better go with a bowl of cereal.”

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t be n-nice to leave you by yourself…”

“Such altruism.” Rick kissed Morty’s shoulder before untangling himself. “If you start the tub, I’ll throw our stuff in the wash.” He sat up and stretched his arms over head, getting a satisfying crack.

Morty sat up, too. “Wait.”

“What?”

Putting his hands on Rick’s shoulders, Morty kissed him on the mouth. “I-I want to wake up like this every day.”

“Me too, babe.” Rick ran his fingers through the boy’s hair. “Me too.”

Morty smiled, then climbed over him and off the bed. Rick admired his naked frame as he padded to the bathroom, and the bathwater started running almost immediately.

Forcing himself to leave the bed, Rick gathered their clothes and grabbed the paper sack before heading to the bathroom himself. He arranged all the toiletries from the bag in their appropriate places, and tossed a buttery bar into the bathwater. Under the sink, he found detergent and he started their laundry before joining Morty in the bath.

“Oh, yeah, that’s the stuff,” Rick groaned as the hot water covered him up to his waist. He rested against the tub, draping an arm over Morty’s shoulders.

“What’d you put in the water?” Morty asked, reclining against him.

_This big ass tub is going to take ten years to fill,_ Rick noted. “Bath butter. Makes the water smell good. And if it fucks up their jets,” he shrugged.  

They both relaxed while the smell of cream and spice permeated the room. When the water was high enough, Rick turned the jets on. He let the tub get as full as possible before turning the water off. If he slumped down, he could get his shoulders below the surface of the water and a jet hitting him in the middle of his back.

“Okay, I need one of these,” he said, resting the back of his head and running his wet hands through his grey hair.

Morty chuckled in agreement. “Y-Yeah. I’m glad I skipped the cereal.”

Rick laughed. They continued to sit in companionable silence until the washer went off. Rick climbed out of the bath, naked and dripping, and threw everything in the dryer. When he settled into the hot bath again, he put his arm back around Morty.

“So…what do we do next?” Rick could hear worry in Morty’s voice.

Rick exhaled slowly. “Get dressed, get some food. You haven’t told me what happened at Nodlon’s place. Researching planets should be next. We need to find a safe place to go.”

“How will we get there?”

Shrugging, he gave Morty’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “The Citadel has a fixed portal, we could buy a ship, we could book a trip on a passenger ship. Any number of ways. I’ll get my portal gun back when we leave, too.”

“We could buy a _ship?_ ” The boy’s voice was incredulous.

Rick cleared his throat. “Let’s just say I’m good with money…and I need a replacement now.”

Morty pressed his forehead against Rick. “I’m sorry about your ship, Rick.”

“Couldn’t be helped. She wasn’t my first, anyway.” He looked down at Morty. “Besides, erasing our portal trace was important. If they had boarded the ship, they might have been able to detect it.” Morty was quiet but he nodded.

They soaked until the dryer was done and the bathwater was cooling. After going through their morning routine, ordering and eating breakfast, they sprawled on the couch together. Morty lay with his back to Rick’s chest, and Rick propped himself on the couch arm, with one leg dangling onto the floor. Morty told Rick about what he saw in Nodlon’s head, and just got to the part where he sensed everyone in the restaurant.

“So, wait, you saw lights over everyone’s heads? What was _that?_ ” Rick asked.

Morty shrugged. “I don’t k-know, I didn’t have very much time before I heard the agent behind me. I wish I could try it here, but, you know. Maybe I’m sensing everything with a mind or c-consciousness?”

“That would be logical.” Rick stared up at the ceiling in thought. “Shit. I wish you could check that, but this is not the place.” He rubbed his face in frustration. “We’re just going to have to wait.”

“S-So now what?”

Rick grazed his fingers down Morty’s arms. “I’ll research planets that aren’t allied with the GF. There’s about 6,000 that _are_ a part of the GF, but that leaves a lot that aren’t. Hopefully, I can find one that’s civilized and not connected to me in any way. That’s a start.” He ran his fingers back up. “We are also going to spend time with each other, _alone_.”

“I h-hope there’s a lot of that.” Morty smiled.

“Yes, beginning now. We’re going to enjoy this while we can. When we’re ready for lunch, I’ll have them send up a handheld computer so I can do the search.”   

Morty looked up at him. “A handheld computer? That’s weird. What _can’t_ you order through room service?”

“Morty, for enough schmeckels, I could order someone to come upstairs and suck my dick.”

“Y-Yeah, but you don’t need to order someone for _that_.”

“Oh, _that’s_ interesting, Morty.” Rick squeezed Morty’s shoulders tightly. “I’ll talk to you about that later. _Anyway_ , babe, the Citadel hotel is very accommodating because Ricks are very demanding. You’d be surprised at what you can get, honestly.”

Morty moved so that he was more slumped and more comfortable. “Should you be using their computer? I-I mean, won’t they scan it or something?”

“They will, but that kind of research won’t raise eyebrows.” Rick rubbed Morty’s shoulders absently, first just watching the boy, then scanning the room. His eyes fell on the coffee table and his wooden box. “Uh, Morty.” He reached over and picked up the box. “Can I direct you to something serious?”

“I thought we were being serious?” Morty looked over. “Oh, your box. I-I looked in it by accident, Rick. I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you.”

Rick opened the lid. “I figured you already knew what was in here, Morty. And you’re right, we are being serious, but this is more serious.” He pulled out the green packet and tossed the box back on the table. “This is Citadel contraband, controlling assholes, but I keep it for emergencies.”

Morty took the packet and looked at the strange flexible keypad. “What is it?”

“A single-use portal. You put in the destination just like you would on my portal gun. Morty,” Rick put a hand on his shoulder, “it only has enough juice for one person. That’s why it’s so small.”

Morty jerked his head toward Rick. “H-How will we use it then?”

“ _We_ will not use it. _You_ will keep it in your pocket and use it if you have to.”

“But Rick!”

“ _No_ , Morty. Don’t argue with me on this.” He sighed. “Obviously, I planned on using that for myself when I made it. If something should happen, though, I want you to get out of danger.”

Morty finally twisted around. “What about _y-you_ , Rick? How can I portal away from you if there’s danger? And how will we find each other again?”

Rick gripped his chin gently. “I’ll be fine, Morty, I’ve been doing this a long time. We’ll pick a meet-up point.”

Morty still looked worried and fearful. “I don’t like the thought of being sep-separated.”

“Neither do I, Morty, but it’s going to happen at some point. We just need to decide how to react. Too much planning is destined for failure, but something like this doesn’t hurt.” Rick searched Morty’s face. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Morty.”

The boy looked down. “I’m just scared.”

“If you weren’t scared, I would be worried about your sanity.” Rick stroked Morty’s hair with his free hand. “If you trust yourself – and _me_ – it will get easier. Confidence works.”

Morty took in a slow breath and nodded. “O-Okay. I’ll try...I’ll try to trust myself.” He didn’t feel, or sound, confident. “I don’t know what I’m doing, though. I’m not you, Rick.”

“Morty, I’m happy you’re not me.” Rick’s voice was firm. “You’re not my tagalong, you know. You’re not my brainwave shield, sidekick, equipment carrier, or any other dumb shit like that. If you hadn’t been at Nodlon’s, believing in yourself, we would have been caught or shot. Trust in that.”

That made Morty think. Hearing that agent _had_ allowed them to escape, and he had been sure of himself at the time. “I…I guess you’re right?”

“I’m always right, Morty.”

That made Morty’s lips twitch into a smile. “G-Great argument.”

“It’s true.” Rick rested his hand against Morty’s cheek. “Do you understand why I want you to have the portal?”

_“Prepare. Protect.”_ Morty heard the voices in his memory again and didn’t answer.

“I can’t have you get captured and turned into a guinea pig.” Rick softened his voice. “I’m not going to lose you.”  

“W-Well, I don’t want to lose _you_ , Rick.”

“You won’t, but we’ll look out for each other. Like when you warned me about that agent.” Rick pulled Morty back down and hugged him.

Morty was turned so his ear was pressed to Rick’s chest. “You called me your partner.”

“Hmm?”

“Yesterday. On the ship.”

“Well…you are, Morty.” He tapped the packet still in Morty’s hand. “And I want my partner to hide this portal pack in his clothes somewhere. I used to slip it down my boot, but a pocket would be all right.”

“O-Okay.” Morty slipped it into the back pocket of his jeans. “Thanks, Rick.”

Rick kissed the top of his head. “Thank you.”

***

Holding the handheld computer in one hand, Rick took a swig of whiskey from the bottle he held in the other. He set the bottle on the coffee table and glanced over at Morty. He had given Morty the job of writing down planet information. They had decided on a dimension that Rick had been through before. It was a well-developed dimension, which had pros like ample resources and planets, but cons like the presence of the GF. Unfortunately, any place that wasn’t totally primitive had been invaded by the GF in some way. Rick hoped that his presence in this dimension was so minor and long ago that no one would associate it with him.

“Computer, how many planets are not affiliated with the Galactic Federation?”

Beep. “Three thousand two hundred and five.”

“That’s reassuring,” he said to Morty. “Computer, how many of those have atmospheres that are compatible with human life?”

Beep. “One hundred and forty-two.”

Rick elbowed Morty. “Our cup runneth over, Morty. Computer, how many of those have major urban centers, with five million inhabitants or more?”

Beep. “Twelve.”

“Nice.” He picked up the bottle again.

“Rick, why do you care about big cities?” Morty was poised and ready to write.

Rick swallowed the liquor. “Easier to hide in and better access to supplies.”

“Makes sense.”

“Okay, Morty, it’s all you. Computer, list the coordinates of each planet, starting with the one furthest from Galactic Federation prisons or outposts and ending with the closest.”

Beep. The computer started rattling off coordinates, which Morty wrote down in a list. After that, Rick got the name of each planet and the main races. He crossed some off the list for different reasons, including the ones at the bottom, leaving them with six.

“Okay, so these are our choices. Obviously, this is number one,” Rick took the pen from Morty and circled the top planet. “This will be our next stop, or if the shit hits the fan, our meet-up place. The others will be back-ups.” He handed the pen back. “Morty, make up a list for each of us.” He took another swig and belched. “We’re going to have to memorize those coordinates.”

Morty was already writing. “O-On it, Rick.”

Rick held the computer in his hands and wondered if he should make another search. _Search what though?_ He could look at GF wanted lists, but what would be the point? He already knew they were wanted. Did specifics matter? _I fucking hate planning. I should just figure out the transportation situation._ He tossed the computer on the coffee table.

“Done.” Morty handed him a nicely printed list.

Reading it over, Rick rubbed Morty’s back affectionately. “Thanks. Shouldn’t be too hard to remember.” He set the list down. “I’m going to call the desk.”

“What for?”

Rick stood and headed for the phone on the desk. “I’m going to see about possible transportation. There might be some ships for sale or transports. If not, I guess we’re portaling from the Citadel.” He dialed zero.

“When?”

“Tomorrow maybe – hello, this is Rick H-923. Yes. I need to either buy a ship or book passage on one. Yeah, I’ll hold.” He held the phone away from his mouth and said to Morty, “We really need to keep moving, babe. Standing still just gives them time to track us down.” Morty got up from the couch. “Yeah, this is Rick H-923,” Rick said into the phone. The hotel desk had transferred him to the spaceship hangar. “Any ships for sale right now? I don’t need anything fancy.” Morty stood behind him and started rubbing his shoulders. “Uh-huh, what else you got? Ouch. Are you serious? Can you give me the specs on that?” Rick was quiet for a long time, but leaned back into Morty’s hands. “What about passenger ships leaving the Citadel? Anytime in the next few days. Just two people. Uh-huh. I don’t really care. Look, I don’t care if it’s _weird_ , just answer my question. That’s all? All right, I’ll get back to you. Yeah.” He hung up and sighed.

“What’d they s-say?” Morty kept up the pressure in his hands.

Rick grumbled, before answering. “It’s apparently not a good time for transport at the Citadel. They only have a few ships for sale, although one is pretty badass. We don’t _need_ badass, but it’s available. As for passenger ships, they have one leaving per day, and all are going to the Blips and Chitz planet. Apparently, they are using it as a hub now. We can book passage on a second ship from there through the Citadel if we want. So I guess we have some choices or we can portal out of here. What do you think, Morty?”

“U-Um.” Morty pressed into Rick’s neck. There was no doubt that the man was tense. “If we portal out, we won’t have a ship, right?”

“No, but we’ll have a portal gun.” He tilted his head.

“And if we buy a ship, we’ll have to portal out of it?”

“Maybe. We should be able to portal the entire ship from the hangar. But we might be stuck portaling out later.”

Morty rubbed his thumbs beside Rick’s spine. “Can we portal safely from Blips and Chitz?”

“Of course, we’ve done it before, kiddo.”

“What can we do for a ship if we portal without one?”

Rick shrugged. “That depends on where we are. We could find another place to buy one or if we’re really fucked, you and I could build one. But I’m sure we could find something on the black market if we’re completely desperate.”

“Are those our options?”

“Pretty much, yes.”

Morty took a deep breath. “My vote is going to Blips and Chitz. We’re just a Rick and a Morty, going to the arcade. Nothing weird about that. We’ll blend in, and then we disappear. W-What do you think?”

“Yeah,” Rick nodded. “If you are comfortable with that, then I say let’s do it.” He picked the phone back up. “Let me book our trip.”

Morty took the phone and hung it up. Rick turned and stared at him. “Wait. I heard you p-placed an order earlier.”

“What are you talking about?” Rick frowned.

“You’re tense. I’d like to help you. No schmeckles required.”

“Oh, holy shit, Morty.” Rick gripped Morty’s neck.

“I-I’m not saying I’m good, but –”

“Morty, the visual alone is going to fucking kill me. Besides, practice does make perfect.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, Rick,” Morty said and dropped to his knees. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, an update! I hope you enjoy our brief holiday at the Citadel ;)
> 
> R&M Season 3 on Blu-Ray ships May 23rd!


	10. Cracked Eggs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Come on, you have a different kind of date."_

Rick had fallen asleep with his head on Morty’s bare chest, after a night of memorizing coordinates and each other. Learning the coordinates hadn’t been too difficult, so they had spent most of the evening exploring each other anywhere in the suite they wanted.

He never expected to wake up to the sound of a laser rifle being cocked at his head.

Rick came awake immediately and brought his hands up in a sign of no resistance. He rolled off Morty, who stirred awake.

“Rick?” The boy’s voice was thick with sleep.

“Don’t move, Morty.” Rick kept his hands up, staring at the threat around them.

Surrounding the bed was a ring of guard Ricks, all pointing rifles at them. One of them snapped his rifle to the side, gesturing for Rick to move. He slid out of the bed, naked, heart pounding.  

“What do you want? Look, you’ve got me at a disadvantage here.” _Six guards, all with guns. My best shot is to get one away from them._

The same guard, who was furthest to the left, jerked his rifle toward the ceiling. “Hands _all_ the way up, H-923.”

Rick started to raise his hands higher when a guard Rick in the middle smirked and said, “Hey, H-923, nice sex toy you got.” The other Ricks laughed.

Everything in his sight turned red, and Rick lunged at the smartass guard. He managed to connect his fist to the guard Rick’s eye before being hauled off of the guard and a rifle pressed to his head.

“Rick!” Morty cried from the bed. He was sitting up, holding the sheets over his nakedness.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, so _noble_ , H-923.” It was the guard on the left again. “Come on, you have a different kind of date.”

_He must be in charge_ , Rick thought. Two guards grabbed him by both biceps. Another guard Rick was holding a rifle behind him and in-charge guard was in front of him, rifle in his hands also. Black-eye guard Rick and a sixth generic guard stood of to one side. “Does the Council take social calls this late?” Rick snapped.

In-charge guard Rick laughed. “The _Council?_ Oh, no, you’ve got a date with the Galactic Federation, _Rick_.”

Morty gasped as Rick roared, “ _What?!_ ” He started to thrash in the guards’ grips, and the guard behind him cracked him in the head with his rifle. Rick grunted, but slumped and slowed his struggle. “The Council working with the GF? Are you fucking kidding?”

In-charge guard Rick laughed again, seeming quite amused by this whole scene. “They made a deal. Your Morty for you. Let’s go, you’re wasting time.”

At his hand signal, the two guards flanking Rick tried to drag him to the door. He resisted, dragged his feet, and looked over at a terrified Morty. “Morty. _Stay safe._ ”

“If you want to have him watch your brains hit the wall, keep it up,” in-charge guard Rick snapped. “I’m sure the Federation will accept a body bag.”

“ _R-Rick, no!”_ Morty’s eyes were huge with terror, and Rick’s heart twisted.

“ _Protect yourself –_ I’ll find you,” Rick was able to get out as he was forced from the room.

Morty didn’t even think; he dropped his guard and grabbed onto Rick’s mind. He immediately felt Rick’s surface terror – that he was going to die in some Citadel room and leave Morty alone to who knew what fate.

_Maybe if I can just hold onto him…I won’t lose track of him…or what happens to him._        

He watched Rick disappear through the doorway and felt tears slide down his face as he tried to compartmentalize his mind. He barely noticed the two remaining guard Ricks approaching the foot of the bed. _Oh, Rick. What’s going to happen to us?_

“All right, _Morty_ , grab a blanket and get your ass moving,” the guard on the right said. Morty continued to stare at the empty doorway, not hearing the order over the rush of blood and fear in his ears.

The other guard was the smartass whose eye was starting to turn purple. “Come on, kid!” He jerked his rifle toward the door.

Morty got out of the bed and started to grab his clothes from the floor.

“I said come on! Wrap your skinny ass in that blanket and move it!”

Morty dropped his jeans. _But the portal packet!_ “W-What will I wear?” He pulled the comforter free.

“Whatever the doctors tell you to.”

He wrapped himself in the comforter and was forced from the room at gunpoint. He could still feel Rick, and that kept him from sobbing.

***

Rick was dragged and prodded through the main part of the Citadel, bare-assed and stunned. The back of his head was starting to throb angrily. It was the middle of the night, but Ricks were late night types, so the Citadel was still buzzing with activity. Rick was getting plenty of stares and pointing, but he was too wrapped up in his thoughts to notice.

_There’s no way to escape now – too many other guards nearby. At least they are down to four instead of six…if I’m lucky, I might get them in tight quarters and get a gun away from one of those fuckers. But it looks like we’re going to the ship hangar…If they get me cornered, they’ll shoot me dead for sure. There’s no GF coming to pick me up. The Council is killing me, so they can get to Morty. It’s all been a trap from the Council this whole time._

He closed his eyes, trying to block the ambient light that was worsening the head pain, and he saw the frightened look that had been on Morty’s face in the room. _Oh, Morty. What are they doing to you?_ Fear washed over him and suddenly he was being flung forward because he had stopped walking. He staggered and managed to catch himself before he fell on his face.

“Walk much, _Rick?_ ” the guard on his left arm cracked. The other guards laughed.

_Jesus Christ._ “I’m glad handling a naked Rick has put you in such a good mood. Job perks, am I right?”

Rick was yanked forward again.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be talking about perks, since you’re the naked one,” in-charge guard Rick said drily. “Taking the sidekick thing to lower levels.”

“He’s not a _sidekick_ ,” Rick snapped as the rifle tip dug between his shoulder blades. He could see they were definitely approaching the hangar.

“ _Clearly._ There are some weird fucks on the central finite curve.” 

Rick tuned them and their laughter out. He didn’t want to defend himself to a bunch of rules-obeying douches who were apparently either all right with turning him over to _the_ enemy of all Ricks, the GF, or they were all right serving a fascist Rick-government which was basically the same thing. Did they even know what it meant to _be_ a Rick?

_Not that it matters. I’ve been wrong all along. They’ve probably known about Morty’s gift for years. Maybe that’s what killed his real grandfather. Fuck. If I get the chance, I’ll have to break out. Somehow. Morty, I fucking hope that you have portaled out of here by now!_   

***

The door slammed behind Morty. It was dim in the empty room, and he looked over his shoulder at the square window in the door. He couldn’t see anything except a wall opposite the window. Turning away, he walked with his comforter to a far corner and slumped into it, sitting so he could see everything…not that there was anything to see. He bundled his still naked body up, drawing his knees to his chest.

The Rick guards hadn’t really spoken to him; no explanations of what was happening, they had just dumped him in this room. _But they said doctors…what doctors?_ He tried to tamp down his fear.

He closed his eyes and turned inward. He still had a connection to Rick’s mind. In his own mind, Morty was trying to hold on like he had a grappling hook in Rick’s mind and he was feeding out the line. He touched Rick’s mind and saw a flash of a ship’s hangar, and Rick was walking. He could feel that Rick was angry, frightened, and thinking very fast.

Suddenly Morty’s door opened partway and some clothes flew in and hit the floor. No one spoke and the door banged closed again. Startled, Morty waited to see if anything else was going to happen, but nothing did. Finally, he crept over to the clothes and picked them up. It was a pair of long pale blue pajama bottoms and matching tee shirt. He turned them over and inside out, looking for anything that shouldn’t be there, like a needle or wire or something. The clothes appeared to be safe, so he dressed and returned to his corner.

_Rick…_

He reached out to Rick only to feel a sharp flash of pain and him falling unconscious. Morty put his face in his arms and started to cry. He pulled back from Rick and opened his mind. _What’s the point in hiding, they already know!_ He was alone in a wing of rooms, not a single consciousness nearby.  

***

Even more guards had streamed out of the hangar office when Rick was brought in. He was forced to the end of a hangar.

_Why are they bothering with this farce? Just shoot me, no one’s around._

When they continued to force his walk, he snapped, “Look, if you’re worried about getting my brains everywhere, I think this area is easy for clean-up.”

In-charge guard glanced back at him, eyebrow raised. “We’re not going to kill you, H-923, unless we have no choice. I told you, we’re making a trade. Open your fucking ears. You’re headed back to prison, like the lawless piece of shit you are.”

_…What? So…they were serious?_ Confusion made Rick shake his head. A final shove from the rifle at his back made him stagger and look around.

In front of Rick and his escorts was a small red and black ship that was parked and hidden behind a larger, less conspicuous ship. When they were close to the GF ship, two armored gromflomites stepped out, also carrying rifles.

_Fucking bugs,_ he thought, but he could feel tremors building in his arms. The gromflomite from the passenger side flung a set of orange prison garb at him. The driver appeared to be cringing at his nakedness…if that’s what that expression meant. It was hard to tell.

“Get dressed, Rick Sanchez,” the driver said and looked away. Rick’s arms were released, and he was poked in the back by the rifle.

Rick knelt to pick up the orange uniform and looked at the legs of the guard Ricks around him. _I might be able to leg sweep one…and then get shot. Shit. There are still too many._ He took the clothes and dressed. _Never thought I’d be in this fucking shit again,_ he thought, looking down at the loose shirt and pants.

“Rick Sanchez, you are under arrest for crimes against the Galactic Federation,” intoned the driver gromflomite. “We can take it from here,” it said to the guard Ricks, who moved away slowly. Passenger gromflomite circled around Rick until he was behind him.

_Now’s my chance,_ Rick tensed, ready to go for the GF guard behind him. He would get the rifle, shoot both guards, and hopefully defend himself against the unsuspecting Ricks. He moved to squat and twist backward but never anticipated the rifle butt coming down hard on the back of his head.

***

_Ow. Oh fuck, my head._ Rick’s thoughts were swimmy and weak. He was face down with his arms behind his back, but he didn’t notice over the pain. _Must’ve gotten too drunk. Morty’s gonna be pissed._

He went to touch his head and found he couldn’t move. Jerking his arm, the sensation of being immobilized woke him up and he started to struggle. _No. No, no, no!_ He knew this feeling. He was cuffed, and the cuffs hooked to a band around his waist. He found his feet were free, but there was a band around his neck. _Shit!_

As quietly as he could, he turned his head so he could see the front of the ship. He knew that there should be a partition, but they appeared to have it down for some reason. _Dumb mistake._ The passenger guard was holding its rifle, while the driver had put its rifle into some holder above the windshield.

_This is probably my only chance in the ship._ He moved so that he was behind the passenger seat, slumped down low to give his legs the best reach. Rick’s hands were sticking off the edge of the seat and he was crushing the cuffs into his wrists. Using his arms and back for leverage, he heaved his legs up and wrapped them around the gromflomite guard’s neck and twisted as hard as he could.

The guard made a strangled noise and started to thrash. Rick increased his grip as the driver turned. “Throw the guns in the back or I’m ripping his _fucking_ head off!”

“All right, all right!” the driver guard yelled. He reached up and pulled the rifle down from above the windshield.

_Come on, come on._ Rick tensed, ready to pop off the bug’s head.

The driver tossed the gun into the backseat. Rick would have given a lot for free hands at that moment, but this was what he had been dealt. The driver reached for its buddy’s rifle, slid it out slowly, and then shot Rick in the leg.

Rick screamed and ripped the passenger bug’s head off with the pain. Black ichor sprayed all over the front of the ship, windshield, Rick’s legs, and the driver.

The driver pointed the rifle at him, ichor dripping from the side of his face. “Get back in your seat, Sanchez. I can explain away your death if you don’t.”

_Fuck! Damn it!_ There was no way to get that rifle with his hands bound and blood running out of his new leg hole. _I’ll just have to wait for another chance._ _Ah, fuck, this hurts!_ Slowly, he pulled his legs back. The driver gromflomite continued to level the rifle at him with one foreleg while fumbling on the dash with the other. Finally, the opaque partition started to rise. The driver snatched his original rifle from the backseat and tossed it in the front, leaving Rick weaponless.

“Enjoy the ride, prisoner.”

The partition closed and Rick was alone in the dark with his laser wound. He turned so that he had his legs up on the seat and was half-leaning against the door. He had no way to see or inspect his wound. He had been shot in the side of his left leg, right in the middle of his calf. His pantleg was soaked, but he didn’t know what was his blood and what was from the gromflomite. He was fairly sure the bone had been hit.

“Aw, fuck me,” he groaned. Through this all, the pain in his head had persisted, too. “Fuck you, you fucking GF bug! I clean your goddamn splattered ancestors off my windshield!” he yelled uselessly. _There’s no way for me to reach the wound, not with my hands behind my fucking back. I’m stuck. Again._ He shut his eyes and gingerly rested his head on the ship wall. _Back to prison. Which means a prison escape._

Rick heard faint klaxon alarms in rhythm with the pulse in his head and horrible throbbing in his leg. Panic started to build and his hand twitched for a flask that wasn’t there. _Could this be worse?_ He thought of Morty, where he might be, and wished he could reach Morty’s mind like the boy could reach his.

***

Morty had refused to eat the breakfast that had been pushed through his door, afraid that the food or orange juice could be drugged or something. He was hungry though, and he stared at the tray on the floor blankly. _I’ll just have to think of something other than my stomach._

No one had spoken to him since he had been brought to this room, and he had fallen asleep in the corner with the comforter from his and Rick’s hotel bed. He was glad to have at least that, because it still smelled of Rick’s massage oil. When he had woken, he had expected Rick to be there with him, in part because of the oil aroma and despite the hardness of the floor and lack of pillows. Realizing he was alone, he had burrowed under the comforter, inhaled, and tried to pretend otherwise.

_Can I still reach you, Rick?_

Morty looked into the corner of his mind and found his connection to Rick was still there, but faint. He touched Rick’s mind and struggled to interpret the weak information. He wasn’t sure if it was weak because he was only using a little of his power or if it was physical distance.

Rick was asleep, barely. It was more like he was lightly drowsing and moving between nightmare images that Morty wasn’t sure were memories or fears. He could also feel that Rick was in a lot of physical pain. _Oh, Rick._

_What do I do?_ Morty considered his own position for a minute and dismissed it. _They know I have a power. So what if they sense me or something – I’m already stuck in this room. Fuck it, if I can help Rick…_

Morty poured all of his mind into Rick’s and the impressions strengthened significantly, but it was still not as strong as it would have been if they were physically close. Images were faint, practically translucent. He wanted to do something for Rick’s pain. Moving through the front part of Rick’s mind, Morty headed for the network of cables. It didn’t take him long to find the major problem – a red cable was partially severed and frayed. Just like he had imagined TV cables before, he pictured bandages in his hands. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he could only hope this would help. Morty floated himself up to the cable and wrapped it, as gently but tightly as he could.

A hand grasped his bicep and shook him hard, almost yanking him out of Rick’s head. “Get up!”

_Not yet!_ Morty forced himself to stay with Rick and checked his handiwork. It seemed to be holding. _Please work._

Another shake hit him, rougher than the first.

Morty needed to do one more thing. He touched the nearest blue cable and tried to flood Rick with his feelings for him. Maybe it would reach him, maybe it would soothe the bad dreams. _I’m here._

When he returned to the physical, letting his connection to Rick dwindle to a thread, two Ricks were dragging him across the room by his arms. “H-Hey!” he spluttered and struggled.

“Oh, look who’s awake,” the Rick on the left said to the one on the right. They were both wearing hospital scrubs and Morty couldn’t tell them apart. The Ricks stopped and hauled him to his feet.

“Move it, _Morty_ , you have an appointment,” right Rick said, as they walked him to the door.

Once out the door, they went through a maze of sterile white-on-white hallways dotted with closed doors. He tried to remember all the turns they took, but quickly became lost. The shiny tile floors were cold on Morty’s bare feet. Suddenly, the Ricks jerked him to a halt in front of one of the doors. Right Rick opened the door on what looked like a highly advanced doctor’s office.

“The nurse will be in soon,” he said, and shoved Morty in. “Sit on the table,” he added and slammed the door.

Morty looked around the room, which was full of computer monitors, tubes, wires, upright and reclined tables. “Aw shit,” he whimpered and backed up until he hit the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Safety is fleeting for those Ricks who choose terrorism.
> 
> Enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> I actually started writing this story before my The Rickest Morty series. I've sort of blended elements of Pocket Mortys and the show itself in this story. It's already pretty long, so I'm not sure how many chapters there will be...
> 
> Anyway! I am starting this in honor of the real launch of Season 3. My plan is to alternate this story with The Rickest Morty, one every two weeks or so. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy it.


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